CC,
This thread is about litter, not about recycling. Although the two subjects may be linked in many people's minds (sounds like they are in yours), they are really two separate subjects.
If you want to rain on recycling's parade, please do it in the recycling thread.
Proper & effective trash collection
is low on
this government's priority list, true, and environmental education is not even on the list in Hippo's administration.
But should that be the case? There are solid sanitary reasons for ensuring proper trash collection and clean streets (anybody heard of dengue? malaria? hanta virus? just to name a few) and there are places equally poor or poorer in Latin America that are far cleaner than Santo Domingo, my friend. And I bet you have, just as I have, visited dirt-poor homes in the DR that are immaculately kept. So I don't buy the poverty = litter argument. And I have seen and heard of cases (some in Latin America) where tremendous improvements in sanitation came about from focused, concerted, steady public education efforts that cost little. So I also don't buy this "it's too expensive to tackle this problem" or "it's a cultural thing" arguments either. Those are cop outs, frankly.
Regards,
The Environment Forum Moderator
