[OP]
Contributor
How hard is it to NOT litter, honestly?
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/trave...bag/index.html
I can not wrap my brain around;
1. Eating Cheetos in a natural wonder as this
2. Just dropping the bag on the ground
Even if it was an accident, how do you not keep track of your litter?
What do you do when you're finished with the snack at home, just drop it on the floor?
Unfortunately it is all too common for people to leave a trail of litter wherever they go. When we hike or camp we bring our what ever we brought in. We even walk our trash to a trash can at the ball park.Originally Posted by Edward Weber
Lee Schierer
USNA '71
Go Navy!
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[OP]
Contributor
The saying that was told to me, x number of years ago was, "take only pictures, leave only footprints"
It just sickens me that people are such slobs.
Contributor
There are many instances of introduction of foreign species into environments in North America and all over the world. One famous one is kudzu in southeastern U.S. Another is starlings if my memory is working, these were imported into the U.S. by people who wanted a bird to remind them of their origins. Raccoons were not native to Europe, but someone brought them into Germany in the 1930s and the rest is history.Unfortunately it is all too common for people to leave a trail of litter wherever they go.
A plant that plagues lawns across North America is not native to North America, the plantain weed.
Plantain Plantago major & lanceolata .jpg
Europeans brought this over as a medicinal plant. The tiny seeds have a way of sticking to the many things with which they come in contact. Native Americans called it "white man's foot" it was seen as a sign of where Europeans had been.
https://awkwardbotany.com/2015/05/13...ite-mans-foot/
If you have a bug bite or a sting bothering you, grab a leaf from one of these, ball it up and crush it, then rub it on the irritated area. It works wonders for people and there is usually some nearby.
Unfortunately there are a lot of people who feel public employees and other service people are there to clean up after them.
On the other side of the coin, my work connected me with a lot of service people who felt, "to maintain sanity, we accept if people weren't such pigs we might not have a job." It take a strong mind set to be able to see the world in such a tolerant manner, imo.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
[OP]
Contributor
You came up with a bunch of good examples Jim, I initially though of Nutria.
Cleaning up after others leave a mess is a tough one, I've done it many times. The only thing that's changed over the years is the type of trash. It used to be pull tabs, now it's plastic water bottles. Humans are messy creatures
Contributor
Go to New Zealand and ask about possums. While it's not the possum we know here in the US, their version possums, IIRC, were brought into New Zealand to be farmed for the fur and they escaped. They are the reason for the national bird, the kiwi, being nearly extinct. One tour bus driver said he'd swerve to hit a possum if he saw it crossing the highway.
Last edited by Ken Fitzgerald; 09-10-2024 at 9:18 PM.
Ken
So much to learn, so little time.....
Contributor
have a friend who if he saw someone litter throw crap out of their car at a light he would get out his car pick it up and tell them the dropped something and throw in their car. A risky thing to do past now punk ass kids have guns and constant shootings. Not a thing to do anymore.
Ive been at the grocery store before and seen where the smokers sit and dump their ash trays on the ground. Be pretty hard for me not to say something if I saw that happen.
[OP]
Contributor
We have Opossums, people always confuse the two.
How many times has this sort of thing happened with all the best intentions? No one likes to look further down the road at the untended consequences that inevitably happen.
So humans are messy and in denial, great
Contributor
cant be that bad granny made Possum soup.
Contributor
I live on a dirt road that is town maintained there is always empty cans and bottles that dirtbags throw out of their car as they drive along. If I decided to cleanup in front of my place I cab usually fill 2 grocery bags.
Contributor
Weekly, we pick up liter across the front of our property, and the church next door. There is ALWAYS several of the same brand of butts lying out there by gravel in driveway, so it most likely means it's the same person throwing them out. Didn't their mamas teach them better? As a kid, friend accidentally threw a piece of trash out the window. His mother stopped the car and told him to go get it. He said it was almost a half mile back to which she replied" I'll be here when you get back!
Contributor
Im sure one person was throwing beer cans in the ditch in front of my place. I told the cops but they didnt care, I said this is someone drinking and driving then throwing the can out. My neighbour Joe when he retired walked his dog out the back concessions. He picked up enough cans over the years to pay for his gas from Toronto to NOva Scotia. He kept collecting and that paid for the gas to vancouver. Thats pathetic to think there are that many people on back roads drinking. Maybe its changed this was 25 years ago so hopefully it has.
Like others I was taught to leave the area better than you found it. Move some stones, clear a trail, clear a blockage in the stream. It is near-impossible to talk about the thoughtless among us without becoming unpleasant. I mostly feel sorry for the ignorant, misguided, and poorly educated but sometimes they do just tick me off
Last edited by glenn bradley; 09-10-2024 at 10:02 PM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
Contributor
During the California gold rush some Frenchman brought in two barrels of of purebred french snails. He set up a farm and was going to get rich selling them to the restaurants in San Francisco. He went broke, they stampeded and broke out. Now they live all over California and eat lots of plants. People make fortunes selling snail killer to everyone.
I will not tell you about the sex lives of snails. It would make San Franciscans blush.
BilL D
Contributor
I've watched people in their cars in grocery store parking lots eating "take-out"" food from the store's deli.
When they are finished they open the car door(s) and just dump all the refuse from their meal--food and [styrene ]containers, cups, plastic cutlery, napkins, condiment packets---and drive off.
Often they were parked within 20 ft of the store trash receptacles.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
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