The Mystery of the Trash Tossers

We are literally making trash islands in our rivers, lakes and oceans.

I don't understand what's going through their heads.

It's incomprehensible to me as to why they do what they do.

Nevertheless, they do it.  The evidence is all around us.

I've been walking more in my neighborhood.  Another attempt to improve my health and become slightly more fit.  I've even gotten have one of those fittle bits that counts the number of steps you take.  This really begins to draw into focus my previous days of immobility, so it's been a powerful motivator.

I walk in our residential neighborhood, and then at one point, I come to the sidewalk of a main road.  On that road, strewn about willy-nilly, was food  from a fast food restaurant, a place that was located in a nearby town.  There was the plastic bag proudly declaring the name of the restaurant. There was an opened take out box, half-filled, including with multiple chicken strips.  There were french fries trailed from the middle of the road to the curb.  

I shook my head in disgust, and started to walk away from it.  I mean, you can't clean up everything, can you?  It wasn't my responsibility.  Then I thought of some poor dog or other animal coming across it, and chowing down so hard it wouldn't see an oncoming car.

So I looked out for traffic, retrieved the plastic bag, scooped up the fries and take out box.  and brought it back to my house to be disposed of properly.

Who would do such a thing?  What is going through their minds when they do it?

If I saw someone do something like that, I would love to chase them down and ask them what on Earth were they thinking?  How could they possibly think it was okay to do that?  But I realize in today's world of short tempers and heavy armaments, that might not be a very safe thing to do.

I cannot fathom the rationale.  Are they more concerned about keeping their car clean than waiting to they get home to dispose of it properly?  Do they think it's the local government's fault because they don't have trash cans every few yards?

I know our rivers have a great deal of trash from thoughtless people, and dedicated organizations such as the Satilla River Keepers do yeoman's effort to clean it up.  I'd like to think that more trash containers along the river would help, but I just don't know.  If they're used to just throwing trash without a thought, would they even care to find one?

This area doesn't make trash disposal, and more importantly, recyclables easy.  There may be closer places, but we take a lot of our recyclables to Atlanta when we visit my son, Doug.  We take our papers to a place that will shred and recycle.  

It's not hopeless.  There are organizations in our area that fight trash and pollution, be it from careless individuals, or from corporations more focused on profit than responsibility.  We have groups fighting to clean up our rivers, to stop coal ash, to prevent industrial pollution to our water supply, and much more.

No, if you're tossing trash out of your car, I don't know what you're thinking.  But whatever it is, you need to just stop thinking it.  Stop it.  Stop it right now.  We can psycho-analyze later.