How come in the usa there is so much litter???

Question

I live on LI-NY & do constant beach clean ups,not even the the town trucks will remove the bags,whats wrong with this ????

Answer 1

The US has become what's known as a throw away society. We have so many things in our daily life that we use once and then throw away. This includes all that wrapping paper from food chains like McDonalds, and the fry boxes, and the cups, straws, paper straw wrappers, paper bags with a thin coat of wax to protect them from the moisture from your cup, ketchup pouches, salt packets, napkins... and so on.

We also live in a near slave state. Families used to have a father that went to work every day, and mom stayed home and took care of the kids. Well I'm not sexist, but the women's rights movements had it's ill effects. It released a lot more people into the work force, so now if a man or woman wants a job, they are likely to make half of what they used to, and that lead to most homes becoming 2 income homes where both Mom and Dad go to work, and Mom leaves the kids at day care. These 2 income homes...a lot of them are only 2 income because that's what it takes to make it today. The fact that there are so many people in the work-force today gave the employers too much power. They no longer "need you" because they can just hire someone else. Since mom isn't at home anymore, dad cannot run home while on his lunch break, and join her for lunch that she cooked. Both Mom and Dad go grab some fast food for lunch which they eat in their car, and there you have it. They are headed down the road, and they have eaten their sandwich and are in a hurry to get back to work. They don't have time to stop and throw the wrapper away because their lunch period has been cut down to 20 minutes from 30 minutes. This cut back on the length of the lunch period came about because they didn't have the ability to say no. They didn't have the ability to say no because if they tried, then the boss would fire them, and hire someone else.

It's all a cause and effect. It's not the women who fought for women's rights fault. This is not what they were fighting for. They did not want it to be so that both parents had to work, all they really wanted was the right to vote, and the ability to get away from abusive men...men they didn't want to be with. And those are basic rights that they should have fought for.

So whose fault is it? Well it's the businesses fault. Here's the basic principals that business runs on. Maximize profits while casting blame for any ill effects on someone else so we do not have to pay for it. If you follow the chain, most every problem that the US has today can be traced back to big businesses. Like traffic...well when shift changes "quitting time" traffic becomes very bad. What did we do when we didn't have cars? We had a bunch of smaller businesses, and people could walk to work. How about Wal Mart? Have you seen the size of their parking lots? At one time most people would walk to the store and get a few groceries and carry them home. Now, it's not safe to walk there because they are normally on the edge of town on a high traffic road with no side-walks. We went from using bio-degradable (and recyclable) paper bags to using plastic bags that get thrown away. Why? Because Wal Mart told the makers of them bags to make it so that it costs less to make and ship them, or Wal Mart would buy it's bags somewhere else. Now the bags are plastic, and lighter this cuts shipping costs. The machine that makes them makes 1000 or more a minute that cut manufacturing costs. Creation of paper bags probably runs at 2-300 a minute per machine. If we threw a paper bag out the window, in about a year, it would be dirt, and help the grass on the side of the road grow. If we throw a plastic bag out the window, 5 years later we can come back and get it. it wont be usable, but it will still be there unless someone picks it up.

Americans are not lazy. They also are not pigs. We used to keep our country clean, but now we don't have time to. When we do have spare time, we have to make the trip to a big business to get the things we need for our day to day lives. We have to buy replacements for items we had that have broken because they were not made to last. Big business made the item with "planned obsolescence" in mind. Things have a warranty on them, and they want them to last till the warranty period is up, but break soon after. It is not profitable to them to make things to last longer because that just gives the consumer free time using the product. If they can eliminate that "free time" then the consumer will return and buy another newer model. Then there's the BS in the warranty. They do not pay for shipping to a repair center when an item quits. You must deliver it. I had a freezer that was 2 years old, and cost $300. I live in Illinois, and when it quit I called for warranty service. They said I would have to take it to Texas for repair. I did some number crunching and decided it would be far cheaper to purchase a replacement than to take or ship it to Texas and I could have the new one right now. I did the best I could, and bought a different brand. That freezer became litter on my front porch for a few days till I had time to take it to the recycling center where they charged me...yes I said they charged me $20 to recycle it. I could have paid the trash man $10 to take it to the dump, but I prefer not to send items I don't have too to the dump. Others would have sent it to the dump and saved $10.

Answer 2

Cos ur all lazy and eat too much

Answer 3

Although I agree with a lot of what Charles C. said, I don't blame the womens movement, but maybe that's because I'm a woman. We all have choices, we are a nation of consumers, having a 2 family home often is not necessary if we were to consume less.

We have so much stuff, that we worked hard to earn the money to buy and that we don't have time to make use of. Look at how many websites and books that help us get organized and reduce clutter. Seriously go count how many shirts your kid has in it's closet before you go school shopping. Do they really need more? We overwhelm our kids with stuff to the point they can't keep there rooms clean and then wonder why they don't know how to respect other areas.

I am a fulltime mom. I quit my job to raise my family, it meant doing without cable and DSL for many years, not buying my children clothes from whatever the latest rage was, not having whatever the latest it car was.

We have also become a nation with no personal responsibility. If we buy something and can't pay the bill we file bankruptcy, if we have no job and get pregnant we file for welfare, if we get injured while using a product in a way that it wasn't intended we sue the company. We pick up items in a store and don't want to take the time to put it back, and tell ourselves that's what the store employees are paid to do. We see oil prices go up and scream for the government to fix it.

I don't know if it will ever change, we only have control over our own choices, I say thank you and ask that you keep doing the beach clean ups. You are an amazing person who is part of the solution. I also ask you to invite people you know everytime you go, even if they say no, they will remember that you spend your time cleaning up after others and they will be less likely to toss garbage themselves.

Answer 4

Human laziness,stupidity,overpopulation,greed.

Take your pick or should i say pig.

Answer 5

Because people are too lazy to put their rubbish in the bin

Answer 6

To add to everyone else's answers - an awful lot of the street trash WAS properly disposed of in a trash can but has blown out of the garbage truck.  Which is another waste concern - garbage trucks and street sweepers.

But in all fairness, have you ever been to an underdeveloped country?  Some places look like the city sprang from a landfill.

Answer 7

many people dont give a flying fig

Answer 8

Americans cosume more and are tipically more lazy than other countries.

Answer 9

well i live on Long island as well near Port Jeff and there is a ton of litter.  i see it as a human nature thing.  we dont care if it doesnt affect us.  we throw leafs in empty lots and such.  and to the people who think we americans are fat and lazy we arent in the lead anymore austraila is the #1 obese country we are just 2nd best.

Answer 10

because of all the litter bugs....

Answer 11

Because a lot of people are pigs.........