Woodsy Owl's message did work

[Mikey]

Thinking back, there really was A LOT more pollution back in the 70's compared to today.

I remember always seeing garbage all along the roads.

Today, most people would never even think of throwing trash out the window.

If a 70's person could see the future today I bet they would be surprised how clean it is.

70's Woodsy TV spot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZB7g...eature=related

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[Adam West]

I see people throw trash out of the window all of the time. A burger wrapper here, a cup there....the worst are cigarette smokers. Many flick their butts out of the window without a care. The butts don't disintegrate and will just sit there unless someone cleans them up. It is a big pet peeve of mine. We have a lot of smokers where I work and although there are designated smoking areas along with proper disposals, employees continue to insist on smoking right outside the door not only exposing us all to 2nd hand smoke but flicking their empty butts into the parking lot. I have seen countless memos from our CEO concerning proper disposal of the trash and it gets better temporarily only to return to parking lots full of butts.

[HardyGirl]

It happens here in Oakland all the time. I've seen people standing 2 feet away from a trach can throw their garbage on the ground. I seeth and wish I could go to their house and throw crap in the middle of their living room floor!

[MicromanZone]

Here in NYC we get a weirder thing: Trash cans that are overflowing with trash to the point you can’t even see the can. Yet folks carefully placing garbage on top of it as if that will make it easier for the Department of Sanitation guys to pick it up. Yeah, like anyone is going to carefully pick up every single scrap left near a garbage can.

[kingdom warrior]

It is a lot cleaner compared today than back in the 70's.....there was garbage every freeking where and graffiti was freeking everywhere!!!! Hell the NYC trains were wall to wall graffiti...hated that!

[Shanester]

You see two types of people in New Orleans...those that wouldn't dream of throwing any kind of litter anywhere but in a proper disposal container and those that throw stuff anywhere. I can't imagine what trash fairy they think is going to come along and make it vanish.

[Mikey]

I guess it matters where a person is ....

NYC, Philly and even Newark are very much cleaner than they used to be .....

On the other hand, Trenton, Hartford and Patterson look even worse today.

[MicromanZone]

It is a lot cleaner compared today than back in the 70's.....there was garbage every freeking where and graffiti was freeking everywhere!!!! Hell the NYC trains were wall to wall graffiti...hated that!

Depends on where in NYC you are. Went back to my old neighborhood and the dog crap is all over the place and household trash bags are just placed on corners as if that’s how the system works.

[Brad]

I think the "adopt a highway" program has also helped a lot. Folks routinely clean up sections of roads and you see the readied garbage bags sitting where before it was just trashed littered all over.

[Brazoo]

Yeah - littering is very unfashionable in Toronto. When I was a kid the slogan on Ontario's license plates was "Keep It Beautiful", and a lot of the campaigning like that worked to a large degree. People always comment on how clean Toronto looks.

But I think looks are one thing - we still create TONS of garbage.

Not to get all hippyish, but I think the thing with pollution is we're happy with what we can't see. If we all spent more time seeing the amount of waste we create I really believe we'd rethink a few things about how much disposable stuff we go through is necessary.

[MicromanZone]

Not to get all hippyish, but I think the thing with pollution is we're happy with what we can't see. If we all spent more time seeing the amount of waste we create I really believe we'd rethink a few things about how much disposable stuff we go through is necessary.

The other part of the problem is there is (and I know this is a toy board, but hey) soooo much plastic crap out there that is “disposable” that it’s almost impossible to know what to do with it. Plastic toys are cool. But tons of plastic bags, bottles and other miscellaneous crap are just tossed out there and it just sits and will never decompose or be anything but junk.

They should give a Nobel prize to someone who can come up with a way to truly recycle plastic as simply as glass, metal and paper can be recycled .

[Adam West]

I thought they do recycle plastic? We have a huge recycling trash container at our house that takes all plastic, metal, paper, etc. I like the fact that we no longer have to seperate it. I end up with more recylable waste then I do actual trash.

[Sandman9580]

I'm consistently impressed with how far we've come with recycling. We have further to go and the processes still need to be refined and made cheaper, but we've come a long, long way. The more convenient it is to recycle, the more people will do it.

Also, a little off-topic, but I've been reading lately about "landfill mining". By tonnage, there's actually more gold and silver in landfills then there is in the natural ore they were mined from. Also, you can take methane gas from old landfills and convert it into renewable energy, as well as recycle the tons of other metals, glass, plastic, and paper that were dumped before there were serious recycling initiatives. Companies like Alcoa have known about this for a long time, but the extraction process was always deemed too cost-prohibitive. Now, with skyrocketing commodity prices, it's getting to the point where it's economically feasible to try it.

I think that's pretty cool. I love the idea of actually making landfills productive.

[MicromanZone]

I thought they do recycle plastic? We have a huge recycling trash container at our house that takes all plastic, metal, paper, etc. I like the fact that we no longer have to seperate it. I end up with more recylable waste then I do actual trash.

Not all types of plastic. Only certain kinds. If you end up placing all plastics—regardless of type in recycling—I can assure you when it gets to the sorting facility, the stuff that can be recycled will be recycled. The rest is landfill.

[kingdom warrior]

Depends on where in NYC you are. Went back to my old neighborhood and the dog crap is all over the place and household trash bags are just placed on corners as if that’s how the system works.

Were you in Brooklyn?? Fellow former brooklynite here....no offense..