When I came back home tonight I came across this plastic bottle in the middle of the street. I always wonder how someone can deliberately drop anything on the street or any public location without feeling guilty! It costs a fortune to collect all the garbage and to keep the streets clean. By the way, studies (who conducted them?) show that since 1940 the amount of garbage produced by the Parisians has more than doubled.
Footnote: Diwali (the festival of lights) starts this weekend, so be sure to stop by Bangalore City, New Delhi, and Mumbai to say Happy Diwali!
Hey, I thought that Paris had only problem with dog poop. Lolll...now it seems that it has proper garbage too.
ReplyDeleteIn Athens, people litter all the time. They will never learn. Usually it's cigarettes (and boxes of them), paper, plastic bottles etc. Hmmmm....Maybe a Greek threw your bottle.
Needless to say, recycling here is amongst the lowest levels in EU. Definitely the last position in 15's Europe.
Interesting... The question is: why are people in Southern Europe less likeky to care about others than in Northern Europe?
ReplyDeleteOkay, I have to ask: did you pick up the bottle?
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact Buzzgirl, I DID! And I put it in a public garbage can 3 meters away!! LOL.
ReplyDeleteEric,
ReplyDeleteYou asked..."why are people in Southern Europe less likeky to care about others than in Northern Europe?"...are you kidding?
C'mon, you cannot say that...this is not true that Southern countries streets are more dirty than the others.
It amazes me how much trash there is in the streets of Paris with the trashcans so closely spaced. The US would love to see trash cans placed even half as often as they are in Paris.
ReplyDeleteParis is one of the cleanest cities in the world. Much more cleaner than Athens, as Ovelikios said too.
ReplyDeleteThe reason is not only the fact that during all day and night there are street-cleaner people everywhere and in all areas of Paris and especially to the most crowdy areas. It is because people of Paris do care about their city.
But people with non-ecological culture exist everywhere, also there.
I have seen also - hopefully ony once- someone throwing out of the window of his car in motion 2 packets of Marlboro in the middle of a road near Place d'Iena.
On the same road (Avenue du President Wilson) each Tuesday there is an open market and what it really amazed me was that, 2 hours after the ending of the market, there wasn't the slightest piece of garbage on the road!
So, no matter a few people without proper culture, the majority of the Parisians, like Eric, they take care and they keep clean their city!
Then there's the story of the film crew that was making a movie about Chicago. They filmed it in Toronto. To make Toronto look like Chicago, they scattered trash here and there around the streets. Then they broke for lunch. When they came back - the trash had all been cleared away...
ReplyDeleteSydney is usually very clean, Australians have been well trained in not littering. However in areas much frequented by new immigrants who don't have that cultural background, littering is bad. It is quite visible in some beaches in the summer. It's all a matter of education, education, education.
ReplyDeleteI love the mention you find in national parks: take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints. People are encouraged to take their trash home, and in most cases it works.
Talking of wildlife and national parks, if you want to see a kangaroo come to Sydney this weekend !
Nathalie
I always feel some rage when I see garbage on the road, and even more when it's near a trash can!
ReplyDeletePeople don't respect others nor themselves!
By the way, I love smart cars (on the right side of the picture).
"how someone can deliberately drop anything on the street or any public location without feeling guilty"
ReplyDeleteto these people, the world is one big huge trash can...and they live in it too.
Eric, it's a nice photo to go with what you want to say :-)
Well everyone, it seems as though Paris isn't the only city with litter problems. I was going to be serious (for once) and post some statistics about who litters the most in the world, but came across this disturbing story in the Seattle Times.
ReplyDeleteFlying Bra Causes Crash; Ohio teen faces litter charge
TOLEDO, Ohio — A teenager who put her bra on a car antenna before the bra flew off and led to a highway accident will be charged with littering, a prosecutor said.
Emily Davis, 17, of Bowling Green, told investigators she took her bra off while her friend was driving on Interstate 75.
Read the rest of the story here.
hey...Eric, even in your photo, the garbage looks still great! :D
ReplyDelete(kidding...)
As Ovelikios said, for me, i think in Pairs only has the "dog poop".
Um...actually in China,its usual to see such kind of trash on the streets or public places.In shanghai, the government wants to keep the city a little bit clean, they have to hire some people to sweep the public places all the day. (embarrassed...some Chinese people really have some bad habits.)
have a nice weekend.
...Jing
Ahhh Haxo, I was resisting the whole pun thing, but now you've litterly forced me to jump in. We might have to write a litter to the blog owner here and get him to clean things up here a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe guilt always gets me! But I have to say, when I visited Paris last May, I thought the city was remarkably clean and all the streets were quite pretty. Also, New York City has gotten much cleaner over the years, so maybe there's hope for cleaner cities yet!
ReplyDeleteMichael, that was very funny. Here in Norway we hav a solution to that problem...women do not wear bras. >ONLY JOKING!<
ReplyDeleteI'm just imagining living in a city where ONE plastic bottle in the street is cause for comment.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
Ahh come on Haxo, you can do it...you just have to think outside the litter box.
ReplyDeleteFantastic shot Eric, it really moves me.
ReplyDeletethat would be my pet hate. i simply don't understand people who do that.
ReplyDeletehave a good weekend.
I wonder what the percentage is of people who litter to people who don't. I surmise that those who leave there empty trays in self serve restaurants, throw trash out car windows, and clean their ashtrays by dumping the debris in parking lots etc. outnumber the neatniks 100 to one. Consider the habitual defacers with their grafitti. Ugh! Please, don't go on about grafitti being art. Who cares, it is defacing and ugly.
ReplyDeleteTo Eric and his faithful readers: Thank you all for my happy birthday wishes.
Forgot to mention that I like the composition of the photo. I am curious as to how Eric achieved the angle of this photo.
ReplyDeleteI was horrified by the amount of street garbage in Barcelona...ankle deep and everywhere by the end ofthe day. But then I learned the streets are cleaned EVERY night, and it is all pristine again, ready to start all over by early morning. I guess people just think "someone else will clear it up".
ReplyDeleteit is quite rare in Australia to see someone just throw down rubbish and walk away. We were educated with a "Do the right thing campaign" in the '70s.
But Nathalie is correct, some people don't have that education and on weekends some parks and barbecue areas and beaches will be covered. I always go off when I see kids littering.
When I lived in England it was common-place to ses people just throw down rubbish without a second thought.
Nice photo, and comments. And thanks for the footnote regarding Diwali.
ReplyDeleteWell, as Nathalie says it is a matter of education. It takes time. Strong fines can do miracles. I am of the opinion that us Northern polute less too but every rule has exceptions. Nice angle there Eric.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on doing the right thing, Eric!
ReplyDelete"... since 1940 the amount of garbage produced by the Parisians has more than doubled"
ReplyDeleteI wonder how much the packaging in general has increased since 1940. We live in an era of waste, rather than using and reusing the same containers. Your picture offers a sorry sight but a very common one in the States, unfortunately. The amount of throw-away "stuff" and other unnecessary packaging is appalling (especially with take-away, e.g. one cup of coffee = paper cup + plastic top + plastic spoon + at least 4 paper napkins). The same "stuff" that inevitably finds its way on the streets.
It is not only a question of education but also a question of respect, respect of others and self respect... I assume that people who do litter in streets would not enjoy other people littering in their own house !
ReplyDeleteAnd Parisians are not the best as far as respect is concerned.
Parole de Parisienne !
Actually, following on from Michael's train of thought...
ReplyDeleteThe largest litter was produced by Tarawood Antigone, a brown Burmese cat owned by Mrs. Valerie Gane of Church Westcote, Kingham, Oxfordshire, England. It consisted of 1 female, 14 males and 4 stillborn. They were delivered by Caesarean section on 7th August 1970. The mother was four years old, and the father was half-Siamese.
Now how's that for littering?!
Very funny Metaphysicalmama (love that name!).
ReplyDeleteWhile searching around, I found this neat organisation called Freecycle. Citing from their website, "The Network provides individuals and non-profits an electronic forum to "recycle" unwanted items. One person's trash can truly be another's treasure!"
They are located all over the world, with even 2378 members in Paris alone. Check them out!
A number of years ago, on Rampart range, across the valley from Pikes Peak, we took our 4 wheel drive Scout on an old dirt road. As we bounced around through the woods, we came across a very large boulder field. The boulders were huge, and formed a network of tunnels and rooms. Some of them were completely dark, and sometimes the passages were so tight you needed to put your arms over your head in order to get your body to pass. As we came into one room, we made a discovery, someone had gone to the effort of getting to this place, only to leave, you guessed it, a pile of trash! Litter bugs are not always lazy, but guess who ended up hauling it out. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Eric. thanks for stopping by the brighton site earlier - what has your bike died from? I just got mine MOT'd today - it only cost £23.80 I LOVE BIKING it's sooo economical, you going to get another?
ReplyDeleteI once saw a driver of a car at a stoplight open his driver's door and gingerly set down his pop can, so it stood upright in the road.
ReplyDeleteThen the light turned green... he closed the door and drove off.
So I guess since he was really careful about setting it on the road it was somehow better than tossing it out the window?
LOL!
lol like the story about gently placing a can out of the car onto the road. I'm wondering how he came to that justification in his mind. Interesting. This is a gorgeous photo, Eric, quite apart from the subject. I mean the colours, brilliance, lighting and shadows. I love it. So i guess we can thank that litter-bug in one way, that we now have this wonderful shot. I presume you then put it into a litter bin!
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ReplyDelete