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ElectricStar87 t1_j2did3e wrote

Reply to comment by mysinful in Just watched a car dump handfuls of trash out of their window as they drove through our hotel’s parking lot, they were less than 20 feet from a trash can that they could have reached without getting out of the car. This is why we can’t have nice things. by TheDiscoGodfather

I see your point, but let me pose a question:

If you’re traveling in a place you’ve never been and will never come back to, do you just throw trash on the ground? After all, you don’t have any connection to or “investment” in the place whatsoever.

I suspect the answer for the vast majority of people is “no”.

Sure, there’s a larger disenfranchisement issue in Baltimore, but there’s a lot of generally jerk behavior here and in the rest of the world as well.

I think there’s also a distinction to be made between people littering in already abused (“disinvested”) areas where we might see littering as a more expected behavior, given your critique, and people littering in otherwise “kept-up areas” (whatever that may mean and why) — I’ve definitely seen flagrant littering in both.

There’s also a decent amount of illegal littering in rural areas, but it’s just more spread out. Interesting research here.

I’d also like to take this moment to remind everyone that most cigarette butts don’t actually decompose quickly. Somehow most smokers (which was for many years practically a majority of Americans) take it for granted that tossing butts is totally fine. Not sure if this is related or not.

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