We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF • Hacker News Board

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#91

Post by mirimir » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:31 AM UTC

chrischen wrote: post #53

twic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cigarette butts, lottery tickets, and coffee cups - the detritus of addiction. Is there a connection there?

I think the connection is probably poverty. They gives less of a ____.

I guess. When I was really poor, I rolled my own cigarettes. And when I finished one, I kept the tobacco in a small plastic bag. As backup, for when I was too poor to buy more.

You may say "yuck". But trust me, good tobacco the second time around is better than the stuff in those nasty папироса.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#92

Post by greggman2 » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 7:48 AM UTC

jacobush wrote: post #49

steve19 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a school of thought that less trash cans reduces litter. I am a little skeptical of the idea but I see the point.

In Japan, there are no trash cans and people take their litter with them. In Disneyland, there was more litter until they put trashcans everywhere .

And the have this subtle dystopian message on each one

"Waste Please"

https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q=Waste+Please+Dis...

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#93

Post by Roritharr » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 8:09 AM UTC

fnord77 wrote: post #87

etrautmann wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

having just moved from SF to NYC, I think the trash bags in NYC are much worse than the majority of SF. Union Square and the Tenderloin are another phenomenon entirely though with feces and urine everywhere. This appears to be less common in NYC.

I think SF gets that concentrated urine stench because it doesn't rain 2/3rds out of the year so the sidewalks never get cleansed. NYC would stink just as bad if it didn't rain all summer. Maybe worse because of the higher population density.

And then people here wonder why some desperately don't want to live in a big city.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#94

Post by kaybe » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 8:11 AM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #63

tdeck wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same reason there are so few in Tokyo: https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/05/trash-cans-japan-garbag...

I'd heard this for ages, but Tokyo in my experience had a lot of places to leave your trash. Not the giant trash cans I see stateside, but small bins next to many of the vending machines which are everywhere. The streets were pretty clear of litter though. The lack of litter was still impressive.

It seems to be extremly impolite to put anything into the vending machine bins but the bottles you bought from that exact machine though. My Japanese friends were visibly uncomfortable at the idea. Same for any convenience store bins - only what you bought there is fine.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#95

Post by cies » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 8:19 AM UTC

I played with the thought that municipalities should hold the producers of the product (packaging) that can be foud in the streets responsible for the cleanup cost.

Some kind of data needs to be collected by a team like this team an based on that data the offending brands get bills.

Besides that I think littering could benefit from heavy fines, the same way speeding tickets helped with traffic safety.

Basically a near little free environment should be our aim, I do not see why cannot make this happen.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#96

Post by adrianN » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 8:46 AM UTC

Roritharr wrote: post #93

fnord77 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think SF gets that concentrated urine stench because it doesn't rain 2/3rds out of the year so the sidewalks never get cleansed. NYC would stink just as bad if it didn't rain all summer. Maybe worse because of the higher population density.

And then people here wonder why some desperately don't want to live in a big city.

You say that as if keeping cities clean was impossible. Check out some Japanese cities.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#97

Post by baud147258 » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 9:08 AM UTC

hapless wrote: post #46

irrational wrote: post #4

This was a fascinating read. I'm surprised tobacco is the number 1 litter. I rarely see people smoking anymore where I live, so I would assume it would not be a top contributor to litter. Is smoking still very prevalent in San Fransisco?

Every smoker is producing 20 to 40 pieces of litter per day -- every butt that gets tossed.

20 to 40 smokes every day is very heavy smoking, I'd guess most smoker aren't at that level

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#98

Post by WalterBright » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 9:23 AM UTC

I once visited Ogden, Utah, on business. The city was remarkably free of litter.

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#99

Post by newnewpdro » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 9:40 AM UTC

diogenescynic wrote: post #18

Love this article because it's something that has also intrigued me. I used to live in the Inner Richmond and someone would always dump a big pile of trash near the corner of my block. Finally I got sick of this and rummaged through the trash and found some bank statements and RX bottles (all with the same name and address). I called the person and sent a photo with their trash and told them to find somewhere else to…

Did you have a conversation about the dumping? Or was it simply you threatening them then goodbye?

Re: We picked up, tracked, and analyzed 130k pieces of litter in SF

#100

Post by newnewpdro » Thu, Sep 19, 2019, 9:43 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #44

amelius wrote: post #12

Curious, did you also remove chewing gum from the streets? And is this in the "food" category? I would expect the numbers for food to be higher than for tobacco then.

Do people still chew gum?

It's often the most convenient form of breathe odor control available.

I keep a pack of gum in my car at all times just in case I have a drink socializing somewhere. Having alcoholic beverages on your breath when you get pulled over for something unrelated can make the experience far more annoying, unnecessarily.