Regular readers know I pick up litter every day, in particular in Washington Square Park, effectively my back yard. It’s one of my sidchas.

Today I must have arrived in the park just after a cleaning crew’s shift because I saw almost no litter. Was I excited that the park might be clean for a day, even if just for when I happened to be there?

No. Experience taught me not to be disappointed. I went with my computer to work. I knew if I sat and worked, then by the time I left, even a few minutes later, plenty of litter would arrive. I’m sure if I asked anyone if they littered, they’d all say no, but within a few minutes of sitting, I could see litter accumulate.

This picture wasn’t from today, but is utterly typical.

Some people drop things.

People just forget utensils.

Napkins get blown by the wind and people don’t feel enough motivation to collect them.

People miss the trash can and don’t notice or take the time to pick up the piece they missed.

Trash cans overflow and litter spills from them.

Litter-Producing Habits Have Become Too Normalized, Ingrained, and Profitable to Change

I haven’t seen three litter-free days in a row in several years. Actually, I’ve only seen two days where I couldn’t trivially find three pieces without going out of my way, and both were huge snow days.

I’ve concluded that American culture simply now prefers litter everywhere to the alternative: avoiding packaged food, doof, and online delivery. If you buy from Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Amazon, or any doof vendor, you are funding it. Still, personal responsibility isn’t my point today, though contrary to the reactions I see in most people to the idea taking responsibility for their actions, doing so is intrinsically rewarding. But Americans seem to prefer blaming others to responsibility.

I’ve further concluded that the only way the northeast corner of Washington Square Park can pass three days in a row without three pieces of litter to be easily cleaned up is for all of American culture to change.

It might require global culture to change too. American is hardly an outlier in waste.

Maybe I posted that conclusion before. It’s fresh in my mind because of how fast litter appeared today.

We May Have to Change Global Culture. We Can, and Doing So Is Rewarding

I don’t want to sound down. Of course I’d prefer not to live in a culture that has normalized living in garbage, but given that I do, I use the experience to create resolve, determination, and motivation to change American culture to restore lost values that used to involve keeping public places clean ourselves, not just feeling entitled to sanitation department cleaning up after us (costing close to $2 billion annually).

We don’t have to buy packaged food or any doof whatsoever, and can probably drop well over 99 percent of online purchases just in measures that improve our lives. We can stop.

We can pick up litter ourselves, to ingrain a sense of disgust for funding companies and industries that produce what becomes litter. People act like it’s hard to go without coffee, beer, water, or whatever in disposable containers or unnecessary bags, but it’s easy to avoid things that cause disgust.

So what that someone else cause the litter? Let’s pick it up to train ourselves to favor fresh, local, in-season produce and not buying stupid junk online. You won’t want to go back after you ingrain the habit.