Whenever I’m faced with the actions of others I don’t like, I always strive to understand what lies behind that behaviour. I don’t always find it easy and sometimes I struggle to touch that understanding. I had such a case this last weekend on a short trip to the mountains in a remote part of Romania. Before I go any further, I want to be clear I don’t consider this unique to Romania and I suspect there are many places in the world where I would be confronted with something similar.
A river of trash
I took this picture on our return journey where the road followed a fast flowing river at the bottom of a deep winding gorge. The river starts in a National Park of quite outstanding beauty. Except for the litter! We’d travelled up in the dark and I’d already noticed the huge number of discarded soda bottles and cans by the roadside up into the mining area on the edge of the park. The region has suffered from decades of neglect and under-funding with many people living in housing D. H. Lawrence would have been quite familiar with.
It was the drive back that horrified me. Everywhere I looked there were plastic wrappers, bottles, cans, old clothes and packaging of every possible description. It was discarded by the side of the road and adorned the trees and bushes lining the river. Where the river slowed down, seas of bottles had accumulated and in some places I couldn’t see the branches for plastic wrapping and old clothes. Kilometre after kilometre of trash.
I was mesmerised and just couldn’t take my eyes away and at some places felt sick in my stomach. The three people I was travelling with, all Romanian, were equally appalled. Maybe more so, because this is their country.
I don’t know for sure, but I guess the roadside litter was thrown from the windows of passing cars and the rest of the garbage thrown directly into the river. I have no idea who put it there, the local inhabitants, visitors, or both. What I’m sure about is this amount of waste was not from a small number of people, but thousands and thousands.
The world is my home
That rubbish will stay there until it’s picked up by someone or decomposes. A plastic bottle takes up to 1,000 years to decompose and one made of glass up to 4,000 years. If I throw away my empty bottle by the side of a path, each person following that path will be faced with my garbage possibly until the year 6009.
I share this world with each and every one of you. If I don’t care about the world I live in, indirectly I demonstrate my lack of care for you. The only conclusion I can form is the thousands of people who left their rubbish in this place simply didn’t care about their home – or about me or you.
And that’s a hard conclusion to swallow.
My optimistic side tells me this disregard stems from ignorance and rarely from wilful vandalism or a vindictive attempt to damage the countryside and the plants and creatures living there.
Winding down the window and dumping this stuff, I’m guessing they didn’t ask themselves:
- how long will this bottle stay there?
- where will this bottle go?
- who will clean it up?
- how many other people will see this litter?
I really hope this is the result of plain ignorance and just not thinking about the impact of their actions.
What to do about it?
The streets in Warsaw where I live are immaculate as they’re cleaned of litter daily. But I don’t need to go far, into the courtyards, the hidden and less obvious places, to find litter.
Is it just in Eastern Europe, or is it everywhere?
I know I take for granted the streets will be kept clean but it’s really not the city government’s responsibility. It’s mine – and yours. It’s up to me to care for the world I live in, to make sure, as far as I can, that I’m not polluting it and to educate my children to treat the whole world as their home.
I can make a difference myself by picking up other people’s litter and putting it in the trash. I shouldn’t have to, but the other option is to complain about it and not do anything. I’m not going to use all my free time scouring the countryside collecting litter, but I can walk over to the discarded paper bag in my courtyard rather than wait for someone else to pick it up, or moan about the people who left it there.
My mother is a great example of someone who does this. Whenever she sees litter she picks it up and puts it in the bin, calmly and without complaining.
If the majority were to do the same then the litter would eventually stop. It may take many generations, but we have until 6009 to do something about it.
If we all start to treat the world we live in as an extension of our home, those of us who value tidiness will keep it tidy. And I believe those who litter and pollute the world will eventually change.
Because deep, deep down we all know in our hearts that we share this planet with 6 billion others and we owe it to our children and grandchildren to take good care of the world.
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- The invisible path
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“The only conclusion I can form is the thousands of people who left their rubbish in this place simply didn’t care about their home – or about me or you.”
I can’t tell you HOW MUCH LITTER UPSETS ME. As far as I’m concerned it is the ultimate selfish act, one born of total entitlement and lack of respect for anyone – including the litter.
I’ve often observed that it’s poor people who do much of the littering – no matter the city – and I think “You complain about being broke and yet you treat your environment with contempt. You will never make your life any better with that outlook.”
Sorry, this is a huge pet peeve of mine and I consider it “environmental bullying”.
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Ian’s reply:
I wonder if it’s rather those who are not so well cared for (by parents, education, society etc..). I think there’s probably a link between lack of care and poverty but I suspect it’s the lack of care that’s the contributing factor.
And as an aside, for many years I thought a ‘peeve’ was small animal, something like the cute hamster on your current post! Because people always make pets of peeves.
I think there is a tipping point where people start to excuse their actions because “everyone else is doing it”. It’s just human nature.
Years ago I worked in a restaurant and noticed that if the washrooms were immaculate they tended to stay that way. People didn’t want to be the first ones to mess it up. But if the washrooms were just the slightest bit messy they would deteriorate very quickly. People clean up after themselves in a clean washroom but not in a dirty one.
I think it’s the same idea with garbage. There are more people that will pick up that single piece of trash in an otherwise clean park. If there’s garbage everywhere then I think there will be more people adding to the pile.
I’m guilty of the same behavior (OK, I don’t litter or mess up washrooms) but if my car is very clean then I’m less likely to mess it up. If the outside’s dirty and the interior is messy I’m much more likely to leave that empty coffee cup in the holder or stack of papers on the floor.
One more thing…saying it’s human nature doesn’t excuse the behavior! I do not condone disrespect to our environment at all! I just think it’s incredibly difficult to change human nature. It’s probably much easier to to clean up the environment and maintain it than to change how thousands of people behave in an already messy environment.
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Ian’s reply:
This herd behaviour comes through in many aspects of life and I find it an unusually dangerous thing. If we all lived our lives as the individuals we are, not as the sheep we were brought up to be (most of us anyway!) then I doubt there’d have been the holocaust, for example. Or wars. Or gangs. Or litter.
Very interesting to read your experiences in the restaurant washrooms.
Hmmmm .. reading that back, my last sentence could be misheard as sarcastic or something else. Not my intention. I was genuinely interested.
You’re right. It’s definitely not contained to the Romanian countryside. Anyone living in a large North American city knows all too well what you are talking about.
I often wonder if this epidemic of slovenliness is a result of the skewed attitudes of the past few generations. It is a sociological problem spawned by ego and self entitlement. Everyone is just too darned important to perform menial chores. Cleaning up is for the inferior. I find it very interesting that anyone who feels a need to do it is categorized as obsessive compulsive.
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Ian’s reply:
Not sure whether to be happy or sad that it’s an American thing as well. Partly I was hoping it was only in this one spot on the planet. Of course that’s a forlorn hope as I realise it’s everywhere.
Actually I understand why most people don’t pick up other people’s litter. It’s not such a pleasant thing to do, and you never know what the litter contains, where it’s been, used for etc.. I have quite a vivid imagination about such things (not pleasant at all!). What I’m less clear about is why people throw it there in the first place.
Hi Ian,
I think one of the reasons people do not respect nature is because they do not realize the impact of their actions. Some people are aware of certain things and they act accordingly.
When I learned about the concept of karma, although I was raised as a Catholic, it was enough to make me realize that my actions had consequences. I also think that people have become trained to focus solely on themselves, they are not aware of the people around them or rather they are so afraid of other people, they just are focused on themselves. Kind of like it is “me against the world” as opposed to “we are all sharing this world”.
I think if more people realized that every little thing they do creates some type of reaction (paraphrasing Einstein here), then they would act differently.
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Ian’s reply:
I agree that we’re missing a real understanding of and wonder towards the deep connections between us all. As you say, we’ve been trained to have a particular view of the world and to behave certain ways. Part of this is also the training we get about consumerism. Many people consume more than they need and with that comes waste, and litter.
I’m starting to see this whole litter/pollution challenge is more complex than ‘people are lazy’.
Sure we can complain about it and yes all it takes is being solely responsible but I think it goes further than that.
I think we are so obsessed with having stuff and thinking it will be like a magic pill that we go through this stuff like water.
I mean this goes back to the 80/20 principle, and it could be anything we have, 20% of the stuff gets used 80% of the time or produce 80% of the results, hence there is waste left over.
Sure, there are also health risk because this stuff gets into our water.
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Ian’s reply:
I agree that the waste is part of the obsession with having stuff. And I hate to think of the effects of all this pollution. In the past I’ve enjoyed drinking fresh water from mountain streams. I will think twice now!
It’s not in their heads yet. The most effective action you can take it’s to actually take the garbage, put it in their backyards and let it there for good. They’ll notice it and then maybe they’ll start to take some action.
I know this phenomenon for a long time and I honestly think the only way to get rid of the human generated pollution is to bath the pollution generators in their own garbage.
Don’t want to sound harsh, but I’ve been living in this reality for 38 years now and it’s time for a change. Thanks for sharing this!
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Ian’s reply:
From what I noticed of the back yards up there, someone has already done what you suggest.
What you say is one way to show people the consequences of their actions.
My main fear of this approach is that it’s ‘good guy’ versus ‘bad guy’. And when someone’s cast in the ‘bad guy’ role, they tend to live up to it. I mean, how many ‘bad guys’ ever turned into ‘good guys’ because someone dumped garbage in their yards?
@Gwynn, you are probably right about the human nature aspect. But if those who did do something to help cleanup when out for a walk or anywhere for that matter, stopped, the situation would be even worse. It is worth picking up that litter and I know I’ll continue to do so whenever I have a trip outside. It a good habit to form and one I find myself always needing to empty my pocket when I do get home, some one else’s piece of trash is always in it! I bet I pick up for than one person’s worth of average litter, if enough people did that, the problem would dwindle.
Here is a video relating to excess, which address more of the cause than the problem. Perhaps the source of this little should be stopped.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html
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Ian’s reply:
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing this!
And seeing your 2 comments here inspired me to explore how to get threaded comments on here. Conversations are starting to happen in the comments, and I’d like to make that easier for folk.
Ian, this story has convinced me to go a little out of my way to pick up litter when I encounter it. I may not be able to clear the river banks by myself, but I CAN be one more person who makes a positive difference.
Thanks for the story.
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Ian’s reply:
If you ever feel the urge to go that step further and clean the river banks, then consider a trip to Romania. It really is a beautiful, friendly country. I’ll come help you and together we can make it a clean country too!
Ian, you’re right that this happens elsewhere. Almost anywhere tourists are present, actually, and even in places where they aren’t because the tides and currents carry unbelievable amounts of rubbish around the world.
Some young people I know make trips to climb mountains with the sole objective of picking up all the litter they see along the way. Now THAT’s loving their earth home!
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Ian’s reply:
That’s a wonderful thought, that there are such people out there. It gives me hope that the next generations will take better care of the World than my generation and my parent’s generation.
“Because deep, deep down we all know in our hearts that we share this planet with 6 billion others and we owe it to our children and grandchildren to take good care of the world.”
Indeed Ian and it’s also the scenes that our eyes pick; it’s totally different when we see Garbage and when we see a Garden!
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Ian’s reply:
Do we see a garden or garbage? That’s such an evocative question, and I love it!
I’ve noticed a tendency here to blame this or recent generations for the litter and any other ills in todays world and it concerns me. Litter/sloth is not a new problem; as a child I could always pick up enough pop bottles on the road to town to buy a movie ticket and popcorn with the deposit money (yeah, people even then were literally throwing money out the window). A major reason we’re seeing more trash on the road (no pun intended) is that there are more of us, I’ve seen a doubling of the USA population and a tripling of world population in my lifetime and the population is increasing exponentially. The slobs of yesteryear and yestereons ago are the archeologists delight. Problem is that now the crap on the side of the roads, in the parks and our backyards is accumalating two to three times faster than it ever has and we fly by tsk-tsking about the mess. In addition to not adding to the mess ourselves, we need to start picking up a few other pieces along the way.
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Ian’s reply:
Gary. Thanks for this and I think it’s important to be reminded that all the ills of the world are not a sudden invention of current and recent generations, but have been created over many generations.
I hope you haven’t found any blame in any of my writing? If you do, then I’d love to hear about it as I really do try hard to focus on understanding how things are as they are without blaming or judging. I accept that when I feel strongly about something then some of my judgements might leak into my writing and that might be heard as blame. I’m not as perfectly living what I write about as I’d like. Yet.
I’m also trying to focus on what I (and we) can do about it that’s peaceful. I certainly don’t regard the consequences of blame as peaceful (ranging from mild ‘tsk tsk’ to not-mild killing) which is why I aim not to blame anyone.
Hi Ian:
No, not just Romania. I can tell you exactly how much time it takes to eat your McDonalds burger – from the Restaurant to my house. It’s amazing. My husband wants to do the same thing Dragos suggested only we don’t know who dumps in our yard day after day. I don’t think I have linked it to the less fortunate?
When my kids were little I belonged to our civic club – Kiwanis and we participated in the “adopt a highway” program where we would clean up the highway once a month. They certainly never thought twice about throwing anything out the window.
The discussion about follow the herd? Why is the negative herd so large and they positive herd so pathetically small? So sad.
On a positive note – one person can make a difference, all the difference.
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Ian’s reply:
I agree Dee, one person can make a whole deal of difference and even more so if the herd follows.
Try taking the McDonalds garbage back to the source? Not sure you’d want to pick up someone’s discarded burger wrappers though.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit and this is common in most parts of the world except perhaps a few countries like Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden. The difficult part is that environmental issues have an impact of all nations and people. There are no borders. Those border are artificial to nature.
I loved Romania, by the way. Beautiful country.
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Ian’s reply:
Thanks for raising that point, it’s an important one. The river in the picture leads down into the black sea which borders many countries. And who knows where garbage might end up once it’s in the sea. Could be almost anywhere.
I wonder what’s different about those countries you mention? I’ve noticed too in Sweden that it’s very clean and well kept. A pleasure to visit.
Unfortunately Ian, I have to pick up someone else’s burger wrappers because they throw them in my yard which I work so hard to continuously improve.
The “herd” theory works everywhere you look, actions, attitude, etc. Except, of course, when the leader of the herd is positive then the herd dissipates to follow other negative. Do some people find it easier to be negative?
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Ian’s reply:
Not sure I agree 100%. I do think that there are many herd leaders who are positive and do great things. I suspect it’s more that our attention is more likely drawn to the negative. I really haven;t yet figured out why bad news sells and good news doesn’t.
“Very interesting to read your experiences in the restaurant washrooms.”
Ian, regardless of your intent with that statement it still cracked me up!
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Ian’s reply:
I confess to a somewhat mischievous sense of humour! I’m happy you saw it as funny and didn’t take offence!
[...] last week I was indulging myself a little rant comment on how much I hate litter and how little respect I have for the people who do it. I called it [...]
[...] Quantum Learning [...]
I’m not sure most people have the wiring necessary to see the consequences of their actions in the future. They live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have the circuits for more. It’s like asking a 486 to emulate a Pentium 4; it’s not going to happen. We need smarter, healthier, more moral people.
Hi Brett.
I read your post quoting part of my article, and I’m grateful for that and for the link!
I think there are two elements – seeing the consequences and caring about it. My intuition (which is shorthand for ‘It feels right to to me, but I can’t back it up with any evidence
) is that ability to predict and visualise the future is not only about wiring, but a combination of genes and education. In other words, I believe some of us ‘have it’ but all of us can ‘get it’ (well, enough of us to make a difference, anyway).
As for the caring part? I believe it’s in our nature, just we often get disconnected from our nature.
[...] Peatey presents Garbage dump of natural beauty posted at Quantum Learning. I share this world with each and every one of you. If I don’t care [...]