I spent a month in a country that is quite a bit more littered than any other that I have visited. Plastic water bottles account for a very big percentage of this litter. Private citizens of this country can make a very small wage from gathering these up and bringing them in to a buyer who makes a modest sum transporting them to the recycler. This system ‘works’ because there is poverty and because there is subsidized fossil fuel. It doesn’t really work because there is more than enough litter to go around and the entrepreneurs choose to spend their time in areas where they can collect most efficiently.
This is what I am talking about, although I wasn’t in China.
I have an interest in World politics and social justice. I have been finding out that there is not a simple equation relating societal freedoms and environmental responsibility. I think it is safe to say that a society that is functioning in a way that makes its people feel like they have a stake in the environment will do better than one that does not.
More images that are not mine…
This video doesn’t feature that much garbage, it’s just a favorite of mine that I stumbled upon back before stumbleupon existed 