Valid point about the junk that lazy drivers (mostly) discard though.
I think I remember someone being ticketed by the Police for such an infringement?
Hey! I may pick up stuff, but I’m not going to soil any bike bag of mine like that. I usually don’t spend time in trash removal (that’s what the speed dial feature is for)
That reminds me:
during my time at university I liked to hike about 1 hour to an mountain-hut and did my learning there. I took an plastig-Bag with me and filled it on both ways with trash, some “people” spread at > 2000 m …
It’s not just car drivers, sadly. I’ve seen a lot of discarded gel sachets and energy bar wrappers by the side of the road on some of my country rides.
There is _no_ excuse for dropping litter, it’s one of the most basically anti-social statements: you’re effectively saying “I don’t care about anyone else, or my surroundings”, and there are plenty of offensive but accurate words for someone like that.
Definitely agree with you about the gel packets and energy bar wrappers. You carried it there; the gel or the bar should give you enough energy to tote the empty packet or wrapper back out.
It’s yet another example of the “tragedy of the commons.” People who would never throw trash in their own front yards have no problem doing it on public lands. As Aristotle wrote in his book Politics, “For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill…”
There are big trail races near where I live, and part of the reason I run there is to enjoy a park with NO litter. Sadly, after every race, there are gel packets everywhere. Makes me crazy!
Ben, given that is a race environment I’m not surprised that trash is thrown down. I would place more emphasis on the race organizers to at least have a cleaning detail to take care of the course.
i pick up trash every day along my commute, and recycle it. my preference is for the things that help reduce carbon footprints most greatly. aluminum cans are top of the list. i also pickup lead wheel weights and discarded batteries and cellphones or other ewaste. it is never ending… and the recycling almost equals the avoided carbon of the actual bike miles. i am sure it makes a difference, and some people notice and thank me. i use those plastic shopping bags which are als blowing around… i pick them up too, just to keep them out of the rivers and seas. if a few more people did this, we would have no problems.
Great idea, 2wheeler, but this could also be seen as being an enabler to the litterbugs. So long as the trash “disappears”, these self-centered arschlochs will keep tossing stuff out the window. After all, they reason, someone eventually picks it up. It’s just like flushing a toilet — out of sight, out of mind. But does anyone ever take a couple minutes to consider what happens after the bowl refills?
True enough, but if a few more people left the trash in their car/pocket and emptied it at home, we would also have no problems. Personal responsibiilty goes a long was towards a better society. When it is clear that a person feels no ownership for his/her surrpoundings (because I see the person littering in front of me), I take advantage of the opportunity to exert my own: “STOP LITTERING ON MY PLANET!”
I remember the first Earth Day back in 1970. My fellow students and I (I was a high school freshman) signed a pledge not to litter, and I’ve kept that pledge all these years. In fact, in college I banned a classmate from borrowing my car after I saw her throwing trash out the window while she was driving it one afternoon.
The darkroom in our college photo classroom used to have a sign on it: DARKROOM — KEEP DOOR CLOSED.
Underneath it someone else (no, not me) had written in Sharpie …. “or else all the dark will get out”
I always pick up litter when I’m hiking. When cycling, I might stop and pick up something big enough to be a road hazard. Otherwise, I myself would wind up as the road hazard more often than not.
Also, I’ve often wondered if a deposit on every non-biodegradable disposable container (e.g. 5 cents for a bottle or can, 1 cent for a wrapper or bag) would be enough of an incentive for folks to litter less or for scavengers to scour the roadsides.
It was a big help at first, at least in Iowa, where the deposit is 5¢ on beer and pop containers. Problem now is that there are fewer official redemption centers where you can return them; they have to be taken back to the store where they were sold. So if you are picking up cans along the side of the road and you find a container that is not from a major name brand (such as Shasta or Faygo) or a private-label brand (like Hy-Vee), you have to try to figure out where it came from and take it back there.
In Coventry, UK during the 1950s I remember a guy coming around in a lorry selling glass pop bottles that had a stopper with a rubber seal.
We could present the empty(s) for a few pence back (The deposit I guess)
We used to play the game in summer looking everywhere for used bottles to make an addition to our pocket money.
Not much money but it was fun, walking and talking etc. If the bottles were really dirty, we used to wash them in the local Brook which slightly improved the value as returns were supposed to be washed…
@Bicycle Bill: Store specific returns? That’s a good one. Sounds like someone bought off the lawmakers and rewrote the legislation so that stores can keep more of the deposit money.
Wow. That’s a lot of trash if it fills the Bag of Holding…
I imagine K’Tesh’s bag being like that sometimes
Valid point about the junk that lazy drivers (mostly) discard though.
I think I remember someone being ticketed by the Police for such an infringement?
Hey! I may pick up stuff, but I’m not going to soil any bike bag of mine like that. I usually don’t spend time in trash removal (that’s what the speed dial feature is for)
That reminds me:
during my time at university I liked to hike about 1 hour to an mountain-hut and did my learning there. I took an plastig-Bag with me and filled it on both ways with trash, some “people” spread at > 2000 m …
It’s not just car drivers, sadly. I’ve seen a lot of discarded gel sachets and energy bar wrappers by the side of the road on some of my country rides.
There is _no_ excuse for dropping litter, it’s one of the most basically anti-social statements: you’re effectively saying “I don’t care about anyone else, or my surroundings”, and there are plenty of offensive but accurate words for someone like that.
Definitely agree with you about the gel packets and energy bar wrappers. You carried it there; the gel or the bar should give you enough energy to tote the empty packet or wrapper back out.
It’s yet another example of the “tragedy of the commons.” People who would never throw trash in their own front yards have no problem doing it on public lands. As Aristotle wrote in his book Politics, “For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill…”
CO2 catriges and tubes too
There are big trail races near where I live, and part of the reason I run there is to enjoy a park with NO litter. Sadly, after every race, there are gel packets everywhere. Makes me crazy!
Ben, given that is a race environment I’m not surprised that trash is thrown down. I would place more emphasis on the race organizers to at least have a cleaning detail to take care of the course.
i pick up trash every day along my commute, and recycle it. my preference is for the things that help reduce carbon footprints most greatly. aluminum cans are top of the list. i also pickup lead wheel weights and discarded batteries and cellphones or other ewaste. it is never ending… and the recycling almost equals the avoided carbon of the actual bike miles. i am sure it makes a difference, and some people notice and thank me. i use those plastic shopping bags which are als blowing around… i pick them up too, just to keep them out of the rivers and seas. if a few more people did this, we would have no problems.
Great idea, 2wheeler, but this could also be seen as being an enabler to the litterbugs. So long as the trash “disappears”, these self-centered arschlochs will keep tossing stuff out the window. After all, they reason, someone eventually picks it up. It’s just like flushing a toilet — out of sight, out of mind. But does anyone ever take a couple minutes to consider what happens after the bowl refills?
True enough, but if a few more people left the trash in their car/pocket and emptied it at home, we would also have no problems. Personal responsibiilty goes a long was towards a better society. When it is clear that a person feels no ownership for his/her surrpoundings (because I see the person littering in front of me), I take advantage of the opportunity to exert my own: “STOP LITTERING ON MY PLANET!”
I remember the first Earth Day back in 1970. My fellow students and I (I was a high school freshman) signed a pledge not to litter, and I’ve kept that pledge all these years. In fact, in college I banned a classmate from borrowing my car after I saw her throwing trash out the window while she was driving it one afternoon.
Thank you
I pick up burned out light bulbs… Being a photography nut, I use them in my “dark-room”…
Wait, what? :-O
The darkroom in our college photo classroom used to have a sign on it: DARKROOM — KEEP DOOR CLOSED.
Underneath it someone else (no, not me) had written in Sharpie …. “or else all the dark will get out”
Clever!
I would never make it home!
I always pick up litter when I’m hiking. When cycling, I might stop and pick up something big enough to be a road hazard. Otherwise, I myself would wind up as the road hazard more often than not.
Also, I’ve often wondered if a deposit on every non-biodegradable disposable container (e.g. 5 cents for a bottle or can, 1 cent for a wrapper or bag) would be enough of an incentive for folks to litter less or for scavengers to scour the roadsides.
The deposit certainly helps around here. We do get yahoos throwing bottles, but no-where near as many as I’ve seen elsewhere.
It was a big help at first, at least in Iowa, where the deposit is 5¢ on beer and pop containers. Problem now is that there are fewer official redemption centers where you can return them; they have to be taken back to the store where they were sold. So if you are picking up cans along the side of the road and you find a container that is not from a major name brand (such as Shasta or Faygo) or a private-label brand (like Hy-Vee), you have to try to figure out where it came from and take it back there.
In Coventry, UK during the 1950s I remember a guy coming around in a lorry selling glass pop bottles that had a stopper with a rubber seal.
We could present the empty(s) for a few pence back (The deposit I guess)
We used to play the game in summer looking everywhere for used bottles to make an addition to our pocket money.
Not much money but it was fun, walking and talking etc. If the bottles were really dirty, we used to wash them in the local Brook which slightly improved the value as returns were supposed to be washed…
@Bicycle Bill: Store specific returns? That’s a good one. Sounds like someone bought off the lawmakers and rewrote the legislation so that stores can keep more of the deposit money.
Do we have a contintuity error here? He’s late coming to work — because he took a new route home?