I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to do quite a bit of travelling. I’ve seen incredible things the world over, but I’ve also seen some terrible things. Here’s an example: have you ever seen the Great Pyramids?
I’m not talking about a photo, everyone has seen that, but in person. If you have, you might have shared my disappointment in seeing swirling garbage as far as the eye could see. For those of you that have been looking forward to an Egyptian adventure, well… I suspect you’re going to be shocked at how much litter you’ll find. This rubbish is suspiciously absent from all the marketing material.
Please Don’t Litter…
I find this fascinating, because everyone “knows” not to litter. So why do we see it the world over? So with that in mind, here’s a gentle reminder for why you really shouldn’t litter. It’s ugly looking, but also…
1) Cleaning up litter costs a lot of money… money that likely comes out of your tax contributions. I think we’ve got better things to spend our money on.
2) Have you ever been walking through a parking lot, only to narrowly avoid stepping on a syringe? Litter can be a major threat to public health, especially children and the elderly because they’re generally quite stupid. It attracts vermin and bacterial growth, and people (idiots) that touch these broken bottles and syringes are in for a bad time.
3) Litter can be a major fire hazard. All it takes is one discarded cigarette butt into a pile of rubbish to ignite a towering inferno of sadness.
4) Litter looks like crap, and makes a city look bad.
5) Ever heard of the broken windows theory? Litter attracts more litter. If people see a bunch of paper floating around, and discarded fast foot bags all over the place, they’ll be more likely to dump their litter on the ground too.
6) If you litter, you may be assaulted by this incredibly bad-ass Russian woman on a motorcycle. Seriously, you don’t want to mess with her.
I’ve actually been sitting on this video for weeks, waiting for the right opportunity to present it. Some of you may think she’s a terrible person, an unreasonable person. I, on the other hand, believe she’s doing the world a great service.
These people litter out of incredible laziness, and continue to do so because no one has ever pushed back. I think that sometimes we need people like this woman to make a point, even if doing so isn’t very nice. Because you know what? Littering isn’t very nice either.
I know you know better, but I’ll say it once more: please don’t litter.
How great is that women, a little extreme but such a good reminder how mindless litterers are. I agree with all 6 points, but there’s also another reason not to litter, it makes you feel better! I can’t imagine anyone who litters feels that good about themselves or what they have just done. But I do know personally how good I feel when there is no bin around and I have to hold onto my litter for that extra bit longer until I find a bin. So why would you want to feel bad when you can do the right thing for the environment. I’ve actually just wrote a blog post on Trash Can Therapy, feel free to have a read! 🙂