Doof

I wish you could experience the pollution of Friday and Saturday nights in my neighborhood: sound pollution and litter in particular. If I go out the following morning before the street cleaners do their work, at taxpayer expense, there is garbage all over. Pizza boxes, beer cans, plastic cups, sometimes bar glasses but they've mostly been replaced by plastic, doof wrappers, often pieces of clothing, takeout containers often with food in it, and plenty more. It's on the street, the gutter, the planters outside my building, in the trees, overflowing from garbage cans. At night they honk, rev their engines, yell at each other, sing, and so on. None are from this neighborhood. They are from other places---New Jersey, Long Island, upstate, as well as…

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day. The point isn't that my actions will change much. It seems about 8 billion people around the world don't seem to mind buying and disposing of plastic so I'm a tiny minority. One of the biggest values in picking up litter is that it makes it easier for me to avoid spending money on doof and other stuff that ends up filling landfills. Did I say "easy"? That's an understatement. I feel disgust and repugnance for the common stuff I find. I just got home and four Modelo empty beer cans were in my building's garden on the way in. McDonalds, 7-11, Amazon, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Coca-Cola ... All of those brands and their peers…