Three separate places I went to at 8 in the morning. Gas station, dunkin’ donuts, and then a convenience store. All of them, trash is full. People wonder why they litter in the USA, there’s nowhere to throw away trash when you’re out. It’s unbelievable People can just go to work and choose not to do their job anymore. That people see this and they don’t have any problem with it, no interest at all to keep things neat and tidy and clean. Nope.
In Japan it’s almost impossible to find a trash can on the streets and yet people don’t litter. The problem is the culture centered around consumerism and waste.
This. Throwing your trash on the ground because you can’t find a trash can amounts to childish entitlement in my eyes.
No trash cans in the forest, is OP saying they just litter all through nature when they go camping?
A lot of people do…
I once dropped a water bottle out of my backpack, and couldn’t find it when I retraced my hike, but I did start noticing tons of trash everywhere.
So I started keeping a trash bag in my backpack, and filling a small bag every time I hike.
I may not have found my bottle, but I’ll make sure I clean up more than I left every time I’m out.
they just litter all through nature when they go camping
Many americans do just that, yes. :'(
Most don’t.
It’s somewhat comforting to know that no matter how far out in the wild you go you eventually find signs of humanity.
The fact those signs are pieces of trash that someone either left or blew in on the wind is depressing.
With respect to Japan, there’s definitely a culture difference, but I don’t think it’s the consumerism/waste culture. There’s so much excess packaging in Japanese food products.
Yeah, but do they wolf down a half pound of meat plus fried potatoes and a half gallon of sugar water four times a day in Japan?
Possibly, where are you going with this?
Smaller portions creates exponentially less waste. It also isn’t frequently greasy western fast food waste that is inconvenient to carry around for any period of time.
Like I wouldn’t mind carrying around a paper wrapper from a nice sandwich place, but fast food waste is greasy and likely to leak.
Dude, larger portions have less packaging, just because of the square-cube law. I’m actually having trouble thinking of a counterexample, even.
Larger portions need less wrapping per lb, but more overall packaging than a smaller item. You know, like how more filling requires a bigger tortilla.
You are also missing the point about the multiple, larger, individually packaged parts. Like how one container from a sit down restaurant is less overall trash than a bag of multiple wrappers, ketchup packets, and a cup from fast food.
Also, the grease.
East Asia loves individually packaged everything. Americans would need to eat ridiculously more food to beat them, just by quantity like you’re suggesting. They do eat a bit more, on average, but not that much - and the gap is closing.
Plenty of consumerism and waste in Japan. For trash, it’s socially acceptable to ask a store to use their trash can.
Get what you pay for. The minimum wage is still 7.25 federally. I can’t believe employers just choose not to pay livable wages.
Lose me with this “nobody wants to work anymore” bullshit. Nobody wants to pay anymore.
I swear there are less garbage cans in public areas now than 15 years ago. It’s probably my fault for for doing quick car cleans and dumping at every gas station and retail store.
Side note: garbage is expensive these days
Garbage is very expensive that’s why you want to build a society that doesn’t create unnecessary garbage
To be fair, I work at a job where I need to empty trash cans and I can honestly say I don’t get paid enough to haul y’alls shit off to the dumpster. Y’all put dumb shit in there that you shouldn’t be putting in there. It’s at the point where I take my trash home with me.
I worked at dunkin while I was in college and it didn’t matter how often you took the trash out during the summertime, it was constantly overflowing from people cleaning out their cars into it.
Not even kidding, one day I was on break outside and watched someone fill the freshly emptied can 3/4 full with all their fast food trash. As soon as the trashcan is empty people take the opportunity to clean out their cars. It’s fucking weird.
Honestly, it’s because we are experiencing a massive, unprecedented trash crisis like never before. People cannot find places to throw away trash because there’s so much of it everywhere. It’s a lot of fast food packing materials, disposable silverware, plates, napkins, stuff like that. The fact that trash cans are full everywhere, constantly, and people are trying to clean out their cars all the time anywhere they can… It’s simply screams trash crisis. People just cannot get rid of all the trash that they have, there’s too much coming in and not enough ways to throw it away. We need to stop using disposable crap that goes into the garbage
Or, hear me out… carry it until you find one with room? If finding full trash cans “forces” you to litter, that says more about you being an entitled piece of shit than it does about anything else.
Perhaps one should ask why there is so much trash to be thrown away in the first place.
Bins wouldn’t always be full if there was simply less trash to put in them.
Personally, if I see a full trash can I will keep my trash with me until I can find a place to dispose of it. I can’t imagine just throwing it on the ground regardless of the can situation.
Japanese people do that as trash bins are very rare. It is an education issue and not the lack/full of trash binsy
Bro I remember in Japan there were almost no trash cans anywhere. We fuckin lucky here
All you need is a can return policy and some homeless.
They don’t even have that, they just have seperate bins for cans and bottles and people use them, and the only public places to throw away trash are in convenience stores. Which tbf exist like every 400m.
There are exceptions but generally people just keep the city clean because they want to (and social pressure).
Bottle/can deposit system can do a lot to make bins less full though. Japan just doesn’t seem to need it.
I distinctly remember a few scenarios where I heard they do. Maybe it’s not can return policy but as scrap metal. This article mentions it, too.
So what you’re saying is there actually are bins fairly regularly, just indoors?
Yea pretty much. I have no idea if going inside just to throw stuff away is considered ok (always felt a bit weird) but for the most part it’s not too bad to find a place to throw stuff away.
