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

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

#51

Post by chrischen »

steve19 wrote: post #43
bgentry wrote: post #35

I used to wonder what caused the crazy amount of litter in SF. After working in SOMA for years, I believe the vast majority is due to people rummaging through trash cans in search of food/recyclables/whatever, often dumping the entire contents directly onto the sidewalk. I've seen this more times than I can count. More trash cans would be great, but they absolutely won't fix the problem when people regularly empty th…

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.

I generally see homeless people constantly littering, among leaving other things on the streets...

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

#52

Post by Consultant32452 »

phil248 wrote: post #41
Animats wrote: post #33

Wait until DNA reading gets cheap enough to be used for this. Then we can downgrade the social credit scores of litterers.

Most of the people I see litter in SF already have zero social credit and don't look like they're trying to earn any.

I'm imagining a future where you can inject drugs using govt provided syringes while defecating in the street no problem, but if you drop a cigarette butt we'll track you down and arrest you for littering.

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

#53

Post by chrischen »

twic wrote: post #31
gdulli wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my city, cigarettes and scratch-off lottery tickets seem to be the things that people don't feel any particular need to dispose of properly.

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 ____.

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

#54

Post by paggle »

lxe wrote: post #50
paggle wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't really use Japan as a model for any place outside of Japan. You can't make San Francisco's residents behave like Tokyo's any more than you can make Ruth Bader Ginsburg the left tackle for the Dallas Cowboys.

Both are big cities with people in them. Not sure why one can't learn from the other and vice-versa.

A city can’t take any steps to make its people Japanese. Japan is a behavioral outlier, so the techniques it uses are not applicable to the rest of the population.

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

#55

Post by dilap »

steve19 wrote: post #43
bgentry wrote: post #35

I used to wonder what caused the crazy amount of litter in SF. After working in SOMA for years, I believe the vast majority is due to people rummaging through trash cans in search of food/recyclables/whatever, often dumping the entire contents directly onto the sidewalk. I've seen this more times than I can count. More trash cans would be great, but they absolutely won't fix the problem when people regularly empty th…

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.

I think it’s mostly culture. Burning man has zero trash cans and pretty damn close to zero litter.

Living in SF is like living inside a garbage dump combined with a sewer. It’s insane.

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

#56

Post by ndespres »

atombender wrote: post #37

Cigarette butts seem to be the most common by count , but what about weight and volume? On the streets of NYC, I don't really notice the cigarettes, but I do notice the enormous amount of plastic bags (much of it stuck in trees), plastic or paper cups, straws, takeout containers. And gum. If you ever look at a sidewalk and see dark splotches [1], that's discarded chewing gum. It's absolutely everywhere. Not as invasi…

In NYC, those piles of garbage bags also have the effect of being seen as de facto garbage bins, so people will throw their litter on top of the piles as if they are some type of container to hold their trash.

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

#57

Post by [deleted] »

paggle wrote: post #24
lxe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tokyo has almost no public trashcans. And the crowds are significantly larger than SF, and it's significantly cleaner in Tokyo (at least from what I've seen).

You can't really use Japan as a model for any place outside of Japan. You can't make San Francisco's residents behave like Tokyo's any more than you can make Ruth Bader Ginsburg the left tackle for the Dallas Cowboys.

[deleted]

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

#58

Post by ac29 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #39
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong. Cigarette filters are made from cellulose.

Are they all? I've always assumed they were plastic, surprised this hasn't been raised to my notice before, eg in advertising "our cigarettes are entirely compostable" or something.

You're both right: cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, which is a synthetic polymer fiber.

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

#59

Post by NeedMoreTea »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #39
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wrong. Cigarette filters are made from cellulose.

Are they all? I've always assumed they were plastic, surprised this hasn't been raised to my notice before, eg in advertising "our cigarettes are entirely compostable" or something.

I suspect filling them with tar and other gunk from the burnt tobacco puts them closer to hazardous waste than nicely compostable.
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