4 ms·

If everyone pitched in just a tiny bit, picking up a single piece of "someone else's" trash... we'd live in a significantly nicer world. There's a very stubborn

If everyone pitched in just a tiny bit, picking up a single piece of "someone else's" trash... we'd live in a significantly nicer world. There's a very stubborn "I didn't do it, not my problem" mindset in the US specifically.

duxup 3y ago
Yeah the "someone else should do it" kinda thing is a weird self re-enforcing kinda thing too. Seems to just stoke anger and inaction. Like I show up at a playground at say 8 am, maybe the trash left there was from 8 hours ago ... now someone gets upset that the city didn't do a thing that is probably a rebellious expectation (can't patrol all the parks overnight every 8 hours) and they shove their hands in their pockets and pout. I'd rather folks just pick some stuff up and toss it in the bin nearby and we're all good.
- easyas124 3y ago
  I'd rather the litterbugs just not litter in the first place. (Sure, accidents happen, but I've seen ten times more outright antisocial trash dumping than forgetting a candy wrapper by mistake.) People get upset because it is entirely possible to live in a world where you don't have to clean up after people who don't take responsibility for themselves, and I think a lot of people are tired of it.
  - duxup 3y ago
    I've never really found "those people shouldn't do that" does much to change things or make the world a better place.
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      Best proof of this is seen in shared kitchens. A sign saying that keeping the place clean is a shared responsibility is sure to get things back on track…
    - easyas124 3y ago
      This is a slippery slope towards nihilism. When we expect less and less of our fellow humans, where do we wind up?
  - kgermino 3y ago
    There's loads of littering by me but I don't think people realize how much of the trash blowing around isn't left out by individuals (intentionally or accidentally) but an artifact of our trash collection process. A lot of the litter by me either falls out of the bin/truck during collection, is dug out of trash cans by squirrels, or spills out when the wind opens the can lid or even blows it over completely. There's things we can do to mitigate that but it'll never be perfect so you'll always see "someone else's trash" blowing in the wind.
    - duxup 3y ago
      My trash pickup day is Wednesday, and it is always the windiest day.
    - micromacrofoot 3y ago
      There's the whole other aspect of people who don't care to properly bag trash (which attracts more vermin that also spread litter). It's a very frustrating situation.
      - kgermino 3y ago
        Oh I hate that! It's far from a perfect solution - bags tear, you can't bag recyclables, sidewalk and park trash cans will always have loose trash - but it's huge and too many people don't know or care to do it.
- micromacrofoot 3y ago
  What tends to irritate me, is that sometimes people will make a reddit post where they took a photo of trash to post "what's wrong with people"... and they just walked away from it. If you can stop for a moment to take a picture, you could pick a piece of it up too... but there's also the "ah I don't have time to do it all so I won't do anything"
- drivers99 3y ago
  There was a video advocating for picking up other people's litter (that I can't seem to find) I really liked that said (paraphrased) "in order for a piece of litter to exist, it takes 1 person to litter and 1000 people to not pick it up. And in order for it not to exist, it takes just 1 person to pick it up."
- dpkirchner 3y ago
  Sometimes "someone else should do it" can be translated to "someone that is being paid to do it should do it." I don't want to affect someone's livelihood, however it's a different story if they're ignoring the task.
  - micromacrofoot 3y ago
    > I don't want to affect someone's livelihood press f to doubt
    - dpkirchner 3y ago
      I know this was a low effort meme reply made in bad faith but I'm serious -- it's a consideration. I'm privileged and extremely lucky to work in a high paying industry. For me to volunteer to clean up roads means someone for whom that is the best job won't be hired. There are some jobs that probably won't ever pay well, so there's not much moral hazard in doing them for free, of course.
dotnet00 3y ago
The "I didn't do it, not my problem" mindset arises because of people with a "I did do it, but it still isn't my problem" mindset. The person who cares enough to clean up a mess in a local park is eventually going to give up when they notice that it's always the same people leaving the mess in the first place and that cleaning up for them is only emboldening them further. Ideally what would happen is that people would be self-conscious enough to figure out after one or two slip ups that someone else is having to clean up for them, and feel bad enough to avoid doing it in the future. This has become one of my bigger hard learned lessons. I used to go out of my way to be as considerate as possible to everyone I interacted with, trying to predict issues and mentioning them early to make things easier for others even if it might inconvenience myself. The idea was that people would reciprocate enough that it'd make things easier for myself too. But over the years I've had to stop accepting that, because as it turns out, most people really don't care. Being extremely accommodating and planning ahead to fit someone's constraints won't mean that I get the courtesy returned. They'll just continue to push me around at their own convenience.
- micromacrofoot 3y ago
  > after one or two slip ups that someone else is having to clean up for them, and feel bad enough to avoid doing it in the future. I've lived long enough to know that this won't happen in my lifetime, it requires an entirely different societal mindset... something closer to shame/collectivism a country like Japan has (they still have litterers of course, but a much smaller number) Chronic litterbugs don't care, they're often low enough on the hierarchy of needs that this kind of morality isn't on their radar at all. If everyone pitched in, you might pick up a single piece of trash occasionally... so you'd avoid the "I just cleaned up this whole park yesterday" problem, because in theory you'd have a larger number or people doing a little work rather than a smaller number doing most of it. I regularly pick up trash in my neighborhood, so I get it though... it's impossible for one person to keep up with.
  - dotnet00 3y ago
    Yep, although there's also just an issue of people not seeing their surroundings as something they own. I've seen this in collectivist societies too. For example, in India, there's a pretty jarring contrast in big cities, between pristine modern buildings with immaculate interiors situated on a street literred with garbage. While Indian society loves to label littering as shameful, because no one sees the street as something they also partly own, their idea of cleaning only extends to keeping their own building immaculate.

duxup 3y ago

Yeah the "someone else should do it" kinda thing is a weird self re-enforcing kinda thing too. Seems to just stoke anger and inaction. Like I show up at a playground at say 8 am, maybe the trash left there was from 8 hours ago ... now someone gets upset that the city didn't do a thing that is probably a rebellious expectation (can't patrol all the parks overnight every 8 hours) and they shove their hands in their pockets and pout. I'd rather folks just pick some stuff up and toss it in the bin nearby and we're all good.

easyas124 3y ago
I'd rather the litterbugs just not litter in the first place. (Sure, accidents happen, but I've seen ten times more outright antisocial trash dumping than forgetting a candy wrapper by mistake.) People get upset because it is entirely possible to live in a world where you don't have to clean up after people who don't take responsibility for themselves, and I think a lot of people are tired of it.
- duxup 3y ago
  I've never really found "those people shouldn't do that" does much to change things or make the world a better place.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    Best proof of this is seen in shared kitchens. A sign saying that keeping the place clean is a shared responsibility is sure to get things back on track…
  - easyas124 3y ago
    This is a slippery slope towards nihilism. When we expect less and less of our fellow humans, where do we wind up?
- kgermino 3y ago
  There's loads of littering by me but I don't think people realize how much of the trash blowing around isn't left out by individuals (intentionally or accidentally) but an artifact of our trash collection process. A lot of the litter by me either falls out of the bin/truck during collection, is dug out of trash cans by squirrels, or spills out when the wind opens the can lid or even blows it over completely. There's things we can do to mitigate that but it'll never be perfect so you'll always see "someone else's trash" blowing in the wind.
  - duxup 3y ago
    My trash pickup day is Wednesday, and it is always the windiest day.
  - micromacrofoot 3y ago
    There's the whole other aspect of people who don't care to properly bag trash (which attracts more vermin that also spread litter). It's a very frustrating situation.
    - kgermino 3y ago
      Oh I hate that! It's far from a perfect solution - bags tear, you can't bag recyclables, sidewalk and park trash cans will always have loose trash - but it's huge and too many people don't know or care to do it.
micromacrofoot 3y ago
What tends to irritate me, is that sometimes people will make a reddit post where they took a photo of trash to post "what's wrong with people"... and they just walked away from it. If you can stop for a moment to take a picture, you could pick a piece of it up too... but there's also the "ah I don't have time to do it all so I won't do anything"
drivers99 3y ago
There was a video advocating for picking up other people's litter (that I can't seem to find) I really liked that said (paraphrased) "in order for a piece of litter to exist, it takes 1 person to litter and 1000 people to not pick it up. And in order for it not to exist, it takes just 1 person to pick it up."
dpkirchner 3y ago
Sometimes "someone else should do it" can be translated to "someone that is being paid to do it should do it." I don't want to affect someone's livelihood, however it's a different story if they're ignoring the task.
- micromacrofoot 3y ago
  > I don't want to affect someone's livelihood press f to doubt
  - dpkirchner 3y ago
    I know this was a low effort meme reply made in bad faith but I'm serious -- it's a consideration. I'm privileged and extremely lucky to work in a high paying industry. For me to volunteer to clean up roads means someone for whom that is the best job won't be hired. There are some jobs that probably won't ever pay well, so there's not much moral hazard in doing them for free, of course.

dotnet00 3y ago

The "I didn't do it, not my problem" mindset arises because of people with a "I did do it, but it still isn't my problem" mindset. The person who cares enough to clean up a mess in a local park is eventually going to give up when they notice that it's always the same people leaving the mess in the first place and that cleaning up for them is only emboldening them further. Ideally what would happen is that people would be self-conscious enough to figure out after one or two slip ups that someone else is having to clean up for them, and feel bad enough to avoid doing it in the future. This has become one of my bigger hard learned lessons. I used to go out of my way to be as considerate as possible to everyone I interacted with, trying to predict issues and mentioning them early to make things easier for others even if it might inconvenience myself. The idea was that people would reciprocate enough that it'd make things easier for myself too. But over the years I've had to stop accepting that, because as it turns out, most people really don't care. Being extremely accommodating and planning ahead to fit someone's constraints won't mean that I get the courtesy returned. They'll just continue to push me around at their own convenience.

micromacrofoot 3y ago
> after one or two slip ups that someone else is having to clean up for them, and feel bad enough to avoid doing it in the future. I've lived long enough to know that this won't happen in my lifetime, it requires an entirely different societal mindset... something closer to shame/collectivism a country like Japan has (they still have litterers of course, but a much smaller number) Chronic litterbugs don't care, they're often low enough on the hierarchy of needs that this kind of morality isn't on their radar at all. If everyone pitched in, you might pick up a single piece of trash occasionally... so you'd avoid the "I just cleaned up this whole park yesterday" problem, because in theory you'd have a larger number or people doing a little work rather than a smaller number doing most of it. I regularly pick up trash in my neighborhood, so I get it though... it's impossible for one person to keep up with.
- dotnet00 3y ago
  Yep, although there's also just an issue of people not seeing their surroundings as something they own. I've seen this in collectivist societies too. For example, in India, there's a pretty jarring contrast in big cities, between pristine modern buildings with immaculate interiors situated on a street literred with garbage. While Indian society loves to label littering as shameful, because no one sees the street as something they also partly own, their idea of cleaning only extends to keeping their own building immaculate.