Littering is in

So when exactly did littering come back in fashion again? It kind of started creeping in slowing over the years and now when I look at the edges of the freeway, it looks like the rim of a landfill. Now, our infamous Sheriff here in Phoenix has taken it upon himself to get chain gangs out to clean up these areas but my personal feeling is that when someone else picks up after you, well there is no incentive to make sure that piece of trash lands in a trash can. I understand that some of this litter is due to fast moving cars and things accidentally getting whipped around, but not all of it.

And who remembers that crying Indian on those PSA TV commercials we saw as a kid? Bring back the Indian, we need him to wake up to the mess we are sititng in. I really think that litter speaks to the character of a society. I’ve been in places that not a cigarette butt or spec of dust was on the ground, like Singapore or Vermont. There is this feeling when you are there that these people really have it together. Littering implies laziness, don’t give a crap attitudes that eventually erode the best intentioned masses.

And it’s time to start young, when little minds are formulating what is important in their society. As a youth in Vermont, many city services fell on the whole community and I think, therefore if you clean it yourself, then you care about keeping it nice looking. We had a Green Up Day in a warm month in which EVERYONE got outside and picked up the trash or just misplaced items around town. I gotta tell you, this experience has shaped me even today. I’ve since been at several community clean up events and I am the one on my hands and knees picking up trash down to the smallest item. Seriously, people have just laughed at me doing this, but for me it sets a standard that you hope people will honor. I mean keeping things neat is kind of contagious once you get the ball rolling. I know I feel total peer pressure from the other neighbors that do a much better job than me on their yards. It’s a good peer pressure.

And I do hope there is a special layer of hell for those smokers that flick their butts on the ground, like the world is their ashtray. Perhaps they will sit in a burning ashtray for eternity while others flick butts at them. And don’t get me started on the ones that flick out their window while I am behind them. When that cig hits my car it will chip my paint job. I can only hope that once in a while the butt reversing back in their window and burns their back seats. I can only hope, but their cars are such trash, I am sure it may be an improvement to torch the car.

In the end, this littering just sets the tone for anyone watching and with Google Earth anyone in the world can see how bad your own front yard looks from space or any other wired part of the world. Now that is peer pressure!

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