29 July 2013

Level of littering disgraceful

| amsfromaus
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Have just returned from a 2 week trip to Myanmar, a 3rd world country just out of a military dictatorship. Plenty of hawker food stalls both in the city and countryside. Agricultural based society. Vegetation discarded from crops left in orderly piles for collection for composting. Minimal street rubbish – very impressed.

Come back home to Canberra. Driving around over past 2 weeks between North Canberra and Tuggeranong – food wrappings and bottles discarded along nearly every roadside, furniture and building rubble dumped down Mulligans Flat Road. Old TV’s and monitors dumped along Gungahlin Drive. Tons of paper littering the side of the Federal Highway from Majura Road towards Watson. Plastic bags of rubbish along the Tuggeranong Parkway.

What are people thinking? Do they do this in their own homes?? Is there so little pride in Canberrans that they are happy to make a pigsty of their city?

I am truly disgusted and saddened by the state of our roadsides. Imagine the impression it must have on international visitors.

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Antagonist said :

troll-sniffer said :

… a lot of the time we are forced to admit we live in a bogan-centric society, …

While hesitant to publicly defend the bogan, it is interesting to note that many bogans partaking in traditional bogan hunter-gatherer activities such as fishing and hunting are often obsessively clean when in the wild. Often to the point that many can be seen carrying other peoples rubbish out of these areas with them.

Personally I use a two bag system while I am around my suburb, which has a higher bogan population than most areas. One bigger bag for other peoples crap, and a smaller baggy for when the dog takes a crap.

I think you are confused between Bogans and White Trash. I am proudly white trash, however I despise being called a bogan. I live within my means in the country with my wife, kids, dog, cat and goats. I hunt and I forage for apples, blackberries etc. I grow my own veg and try to reuse/repurpose/repair rather than replace. I don’t have a lot of money (and couldn’t care less because it is not important), but I do have a lot of love from my family and friends and we help each other as much as possible. I treasure what I have and I feel like a millionaire.

Bogans live in cities and buy everything on credit. It is all about the latest fashions and one-upmanship. You have to have the latest Ed Hardy crap and playboy stickers. They are a very different beast from white trash.

troll-sniffer said :

… a lot of the time we are forced to admit we live in a bogan-centric society, …

While hesitant to publicly defend the bogan, it is interesting to note that many bogans partaking in traditional bogan hunter-gatherer activities such as fishing and hunting are often obsessively clean when in the wild. Often to the point that many can be seen carrying other peoples rubbish out of these areas with them.

Personally I use a two bag system while I am around my suburb, which has a higher bogan population than most areas. One bigger bag for other peoples crap, and a smaller baggy for when the dog takes a crap.

LitterNoMore1:51 am 30 Jul 13

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wildturkeycanoe said :

In Myanmar they probably re-use the litter in some way that helps them survive. You also wouldn’t see half the packaging that we have here, wrapped around every product we buy off the shelf.

You clearly haven’t been to Asia, or if you have you haven’t looked to hard The wife is from Thailand and it shocks me the amount of plastic bags they use. They go to the market and buy something it comes in plastic, including the sauces they use to mix with their food and drinks. The junk is everywhere and the people just don’t care where they drop it or what happens to it. The streets around the town where the wife comes from are filthy with rubbish, plastic in particular.

Now not saying it isn’t bad here, because it is, though I do think the OP was being a tad melodramatic.

grunge_hippy said :

You mean there are people still in Myanmar? On a recent trip to Thailand they all seemed to be there.

Well, it’s better in Thailand, because they can command a better price for their daughters there.

gazket said :

well at least we don’t have have raw sewerage flowing through the street.

No, we just end up with it flowing down the lake from Queanbeyan every time it rains for more than a couple of days.

Masquara said :

It’s because we don’t have an underclass to clean up after us.

We do – but when they’re locked up in an Ambassador’s house, it’s a little hard to get them out to pick up the rubbish.

thebrownstreak698:55 pm 29 Jul 13

I’d say a large part of our problem is smokers who see the world as their ash tray.

It’s because we don’t have an underclass to clean up after us.

wildturkeycanoe said :

In Myanmar they probably re-use the litter in some way that helps them survive. You also wouldn’t see half the packaging that we have here, wrapped around every product we buy off the shelf.

Not sure if everything either you or OP are saying matches up with what I’ve seen in SE Asia (granted not Myanmar).

I’ve been to most SE Asian countries and the lot of them go crazy over wrapping. I thought we over-wrapped stuff here, but the wrapping that goes on over there is absurd. A pack of crackers similar to a box of Jatz will individually wrap every single cracker. You buy a single item from a shop and they will put it in a plastic bag for you.

Littering is also much worse. In Cambodia the verges of some of the the main roads are ankle deep in litter. In Vietnam they seem to get rid of their littler by making big piles of it in the middle of the road and setting it on fire. Many rivers in Indonesia are basically a plastic stew.

I’m not questioning OP’s experience, but my own experience has been the opposite – Australia, particularly Canberra, is heads and shoulders above SE Asian countries when it comes to litter and waste.

grunge_hippy said :

You mean there are people still in Myanmar? On a recent trip to Thailand they all seemed to be there.

Thailand must have even less littering.

grunge_hippy6:17 pm 29 Jul 13

You mean there are people still in Myanmar? On a recent trip to Thailand they all seemed to be there.

well at least we don’t have have raw sewerage flowing through the street.

wildturkeycanoe4:14 pm 29 Jul 13

In Myanmar they probably re-use the litter in some way that helps them survive. You also wouldn’t see half the packaging that we have here, wrapped around every product we buy off the shelf. Some of the places I see litter, makes me wonder why anyone would be walking there, with the kind of rubbish that’s been disposed of.
Most of the litter around the landscapes is recyclable paper,cardboard or plastic, usually from a fast food outlet.
When is clean up Australia day again? Oh, just checked and it’s March next year. I might do something about it myself anyway in our local area before then, as it is in a water quality control pond.
I think we have as a community as much chance of stopping this rubbish as we do of stopping crime, solving world hunger, fixing the “greenhouse effect” and any other dilemma facing today’s society. Sorry if I’m a bit defeatist about it, seems the bad guys have won every battle of this century so far.

Yes , people do do that in their own homes.

troll-sniffer said :

despite the opinions voiced here that we are in the best paradise on earth,.

People seem to complain a lot on this website.

troll-sniffer3:27 pm 29 Jul 13

The more one travels overseas the more one realises that despite the opinions voiced here that we are in the best paradise on earth, in reality a lot of the time we are forced to admit we live in a bogan-centric society, where a significant percentage of the population are so inconsiderate of others that the degree of enjoyment that should be available to everyone is often brutally taken away.

I wonder if (A) “just out of a military dictatorship” led to (B)”Minimal street rubbish”.

GardeningGirl3:17 pm 29 Jul 13

CLooey said :

Solidarity said :

That’s nice.

Have you done anything about it, or just having a whinge?

What do you expect this person to do about it Solidarity? Chase litterbugs around like their mother and order them to stop littering? People need to grow up and stop acting like disgusting pigs just throwing their trash everywhere. I hope the Govt. increases fines and starts a name and shame campaign. We live in a beautiful city which deserves more respect.

+1

Very disappointing, especially when you go for a walk somewhere natural and beautiful like the botanic gardens or Namadgi and you assume other people visiting those places are there because they appreciate them, and then they can’t be bothered carrying cigarette butts or drink bottles back out.

> military dictatorship.

We barely have visible policing here.

Solidarity said :

That’s nice.

Have you done anything about it, or just having a whinge?

What do you expect this person to do about it Solidarity? Chase litterbugs around like their mother and order them to stop littering? People need to grow up and stop acting like disgusting pigs just throwing their trash everywhere. I hope the Govt. increases fines and starts a name and shame campaign. We live in a beautiful city which deserves more respect.

That’s nice.

Have you done anything about it, or just having a whinge?

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