“I pay taxes. Someone will clean my bottle/wrapper/litter.”
My mind does it too. When I have something to throw away in my hand, I look for a trash can. I think my mind thinks not specifically, “where is a trash can?”, but “where can I put this thing I don’t want?”.
The distinction? From the amount of litter I see placed in corners, wedged between fence posts, in planters, on signal boxes, and in whatever place looks like it satisfies a mind’s question “where can I put this?”, I think many of our minds answer with a “ah, there’s a place for it” and feel done.
I suspect then their minds think, “wait, this spot feels secure, but it’s not the right place to put it.” Then begins the rationalization process to convince itself that it’s okay. I further suspect our minds commonly say, “well, I pay taxes. I’m sure the city pays people to pick this stuff up. It’s not like I’m littering. I’m putting it in this secure spot where it won’t get blown away.”
New York City is deluged with this garbage. People don’t seem able to connect their buying disposable with driving the system with their money that produces this waste, as if their putting most of their disposable cups in garbage bins. They’re paying for their manufacture too. Whether the cup they bought coffee in ends up in the ocean or other people’s cups do, everyone who paid for disposable cups funded it.
They got cause and effect backward
They got cause and effect backward. It’s not because they pay taxes that they can litter. Their littering causes taxes to go up. I wish they would understand this point since we who don’t litter have to pay for their messes too. If nobody bought disposable stuff, we wouldn’t have all this trouble. Manufacturers would stop making it.
We have become pathetic, entitled, and spoiled.
Here’s some litter from my video of Washington Square Park after the Pride Parade.
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