Do you sometimes randomly pick up trash?

[Number_35]

8 years ago or so, i went to the Dollar Store and bought two of those Trash picker upper tools.
I often go in the front yard or past my property line, past the sidewalk onto the City grass area and go hunt for garbage, wrappers, cig butts etc with one of these tools and a plastic bag.
Same with the back alley behind my house, especially on or after garbage pick up day. Stuff gets flown around. Also, i live with 2 blocks of a highschool and not far from a couple of elemantary schools.
Usual lazy brats tossing their chip bags, chocolate bar wrappers, etc wherever they are out walking.
Can be a garbage can every 9 inches, they just discard wherever..
Was much more worse about 7 years ago, the neighborhood 7-11 closed down for good, suddenly became much cleaner.
The high school feild can be a pig sty. The students discard all their junk , in the fields and the surrounding residential blocks.
Funny, when i was a student in both Elem. And highschool, we students were given after school detention.
Forced to go walk the school fields and property with metal tongs and a plastic pail...Garbage picking duty! From 30 to60 minutes.
And we had to show a teacher our pail to prove we cleaned up.
I never see any students these days doing the same as we did as kids.

As soon as the local schools shut down for the summer, the amount of litter in the neighbourhood drops to almost nothing.

 

[xspeedy]

Good on you! Everyone should chip in. I'm going to rant here. I don't know how we as a society have become such pigs. When I go to a HS football game, everyone just leaves their trash under the bench when there is a bin just ten feet away. When the game is over, they just get up and leave. I'll often clean up the trash in the surrounding area to help out a bit. I have thankfully instilled in my kids the right etiquette. They know to tidy up the table at a restaurant to not leave behind what looks like New Orleans after Katrina. We fold and stack napkins and create a neat pile of dishes and glasses at the edge of the table that the staff can easily reach. We always bus our own table at places that have bins (many other people won't). We'll also return stray carts at parking lots that aren't ours. I remember before kids, my wife and I went to a restaurant and saw a table on our way out where a young family ate. It looked like a tornado ran through the place. Food on the floor, all across the table, crumpled napkins strewn about... I told my wife that we would never do that when we had kids.

My first impression of bad behavior was as a kid walking through first class to deplane, and being amazed at the slop passengers left behind. Magazines and blankets strewn about, and on the floor. I think the modern wealthy are the worst offenders. There is a sense of entitlement. Maybe they grew up always having someone to clean up after them? I know they think leaving a tip gives them the right to leave behind a mess.

 

[Huskyguy68]

As soon as the local schools shut down for the summer, the amount of litter in the neighbourhood drops to almost nothing.

true, but still pretty messy the closer you get to a 7-11 or a corner store, as the school children are out and might walk or bike ride for a slurpee or ice cream/ bag of chips etc with the nicer weather.
I used to walk my dog(s) to that nearby 7-11 , tie him up and I'd walk inside for a lottery ticket. For pup variety, I'd take different sidewalks on the way there and back, the amount of wrappers in the streets and on residential lawns/back alleys was kinda disgusting.

So about 7 years ago that 7-11 closed down for good and eventually the entire business mini strip mall and parking lot became a Vietnamese restaurant on the ground floor/Nail salon/ after school academy/four floors up top of new new condo apartments........guess what? the amount of litter decreased guesstimate 90%!

I actually like 7-11s, I drive often to one for lotto tickets or a hot coffee, but I feel sorry for the people who live nearby them and deal with the mess , for a good 5 block radius of the stores.
Oh, and there is a McDonalds a two minute drive from where I live now. I used to rent a basement suite right across from the high school , the high school students that had cars would drive to McDonald's for lunch break, often bringing their food back to eat on and around the school grounds , mainly during good weather. So as with the 7-11 , they would toss their McD litter all over the place. With the then 7-11 and a McDonalds in the area, the litter attracted coyotes at night . Best to avoid buying a home nearby any of these two businesses , unless you enjoy picking up litter every day.

 

[Huskyguy68]

Good on you! Everyone should chip in. I'm going to rant here. I don't know how we as a society have become such pigs. When I go to a HS football game, everyone just leaves their trash under the bench when there is a bin just ten feet away. When the game is over, they just get up and leave. I'll often clean up the trash in the surrounding area to help out a bit. I have thankfully instilled in my kids the right etiquette. They know to tidy up the table at a restaurant to not leave behind what looks like New Orleans after Katrina. We fold and stack napkins and create a neat pile of dishes and glasses at the edge of the table that the staff can easily reach. We always bus our own table at places that have bins (many other people won't). We'll also return stray carts at parking lots that aren't ours. I remember before kids, my wife and I went to a restaurant and saw a table on our way out where a young family ate. It looked like a tornado ran through the place. Food on the floor, all across the table, crumpled napkins strewn about... I told my wife that we would never do that when we had kids.

My first impression of bad behavior was as a kid walking through first class to deplane, and being amazed at the slop passengers left behind. Magazines and blankets strewn about, and on the floor. I think the modern wealthy are the worst offenders. There is a sense of entitlement. Maybe they grew up always having someone to clean up after them? I know they think leaving a tip gives them the right to leave behind a mess.

I grew up in a Italian -Canadian household/family. My parents were born in the 1930s in Southern Italy, at the time, well known for it's poverty . So my parents were very poor (as were very very many in towns and cities in that region..that is why my parents left Italy to come to Canada in the mid 50s.) Anyways, it took a long long time for my parents to get to a near middle class status.

I give you the condensed version: Eventually four children/one job/scrimp and save/ don't make a mess or break stuff/clean up your mess/keep the home clean /take off your shoes/ The King of his Castle and his Queen need you to mow the lawn, paint, take out the garbage, take your shoes off inside the home....or you can go live in the park! So it carries on, more or less, thru adulthood, of keeping tidy and always hearing that inner voice ''Whooooooo made this mess??? clean it up before I crack your head open!''.

Heck, to this day, I might take my 90 year old mother to a DQ/McDs/whatever restaurant, she is cleaning the table mid way thru our lunch . We get up to leave the restaurant, we clear the table of our mess for the next potential customer wanting to sit and eat.
Normally it's the parents who set the good (or bad ) examples of how to behave and rules of society.

I have a really nice young Indian couple in their mid thirties living in a bsmnt suite just 3 houses from mine, with a 3 and 7 year old. I've been inside their suite to help with a clogged sink, to help put a desk together, other stuff they need help with. Complete utter pig sty, junk everywhere, all over the floors of every room. The place looks like a tornado ripped thru there. Such a nice young couple, very sweet, adorable children, well loved and looked after, the family car also a big pig sty inside, jammed full of family stuff, crumbs and wrappers everywhere , the trunk stuffed full . The few times I was invited inside, I never sat anywhere, I just stood, chatted....in my head I Sighed, made an excuse to go back home/tell a fib so I can get the F**K outta there before I get a tapeworm or ebola or some Rat jumps out and bites me in the bum. I'm not a neat freak exaggerating, they just Dirty. and apparently they came from good families back in India, the young mother was a lawyer back in her country, both university educated, they had people come clean their parent's homes!
The kids are clean/clean clothes/looked after and seem well adjusted. But when they hit their teens, they will most likely be the teens you see at the ball game leaving their messes behind . They will be the renters who the landlord boots out for living like pigs.

 

[xspeedy]

and apparently they came from good families back in India, the young mother was a lawyer back in her country, both university educated, they had people come clean their parent's homes!

Yeah. I’m Indian American, and any decently well off family in India has someone to cook, clean, do whatever. Basic labor is so cheap. We aren’t neat freaks ourselves, but I try to live in a way that doesn’t burden others.

 

[Huskyguy68]

Yeah. I’m Indian American, and any decently well off family in India has someone to cook, clean, do whatever. Basic labor is so cheap. We aren’t neat freaks ourselves, but I try to live in a way that doesn’t burden others.

Yeah. I’m Indian American, and any decently well off family in India has someone to cook, clean, do whatever. Basic labor is so cheap. We aren’t neat freaks ourselves, but I try to live in a way that doesn’t burden others.

To add, I have at least 500,000 people of Indian or Pakistani descent living in the metro area here. Not exaggerating. One entire suburb, Surrey that has 0ver 700,000 residents, over 300,000 I think are from India. I grew up with Indian school mates, neighbours, coworkers....I mean, by the sheer numbers, how can you not? So my comment not to offend you or other Indians living in North America, like any body, there are the good, the bad and the ugly.
The ugly would be the ongoing Indo Canadian gang wars /shooting we have here, the extortion shootings at Indian owned businesses by Indian gang members. But that is a small part of their community. Vast majority hard working, law abiding , polite friendly family people, their children seem to excellent in the schools, fill up the universities and produce lawyers, doctors, engineers, we have many Indian business owners of every type. At the moment, I'm kinda salivating , thinking about wanting to go buy Indian take out food, which I go crazy for.

I just mentioned my ''Indian'' next door neighbors as an example of a young couple with children who happen to be messy. Lots of other Indian neighbors here and there, i'm sure they are the opposite of them...I can tell by their clean homes from the outside, neat and organized, clean vehicles out front or in their driveways....you know, just clean, respectable, friendly.

Anybody can be a slob, including my own people, the Italians. Up to each individual to do their best with what they got, wherever they may live.