Trash

… there is a lot of it in India, and everywhere.

While I’ve read that many a foreign company is to blame for bringing in a plethora of consumer products in plastics to India, unfortunately, I can’t help but also conclude that some of the trash problem is due to societal acceptance of littering. On our train ride up to Ooty, we mentioned in a past post that we were stuffed in a small boxed compartment with two very kind and friendly families. So it was difficult to not only watch the families toss their trash – aluminum, paper, plastic containers, everything – out the train windows into the forested area outside, but also watch the adults encourage their children to toss it out the windows. This was particularly odd to me because the train took us past some very nice areas – waterfalls, running streams – all of which everyone on the train oohed and aahed over. It seemed that they had not yet made the connection that throwing trash away in places other than contained areas corresponds directly to the sustainability of natured areas. Sadly, the outside area up to Ooty reflected what could only be a long cumulation of this trash behavior, and by many people.

Several times during that train trip I know both Grantland and I thought about suggesting a trash bag for our little compartment. But I’m not sure if or how we could have done that and explained the reason why without sounding like snooty foreigners.

I’m thinking that India could benefit from a public campaign - a la “Don’t Litter” or “Keep America Beautiful” - as well as funding for public garbage cans, which there constantly seemed to be a shortage of everywhere we went.

Our experience with constant trash in India also makes me greatly appreciate the orderly infrastructure for waste disposal that we have in America.