Post # 10 37 days 21 h 46 m 34 s

Looking back at my post regarding litter on country roads I now realize I’ve been unfair to have excluded city streets. I’m sure that per square foot there is far more trash littering my Brooklyn neighborhood than the combined total of country roads I traverse. It’s that the trash set against the canvas of rural splendor seems far more egregious and out of place.
But even the city with its issues of population and trash removal does not offer a decent excuse for careless litter. So city dwellers if you’re reading this take note. You may not have dropped the litter in front of your house but that’s no reason not to pick it up. Perching your discard on top of the overflowing pile spewing out of a trash can all of which is about to fall off into the street does not qualify as properly disposing of your garbage. Adding your litter to trash that is in an inappropriate place, dropping it out of your car, leaving it behind on the subway and just thoughtlessly disposing of trash you wouldn’t dream of discarding in the middle of your living room, in our collective living room, is not okay.
During a recent Prospect Park run I witnessed a man who while parking his car became annoyed by a large plastic soda bottle at the curb. Exiting the car he picked up the bottle and tossed it into the edge of the park. As I went by I gave him my best look of disgust. Immediately defensive he protested that he didn’t drop it in the street and was only moving it away from his car. I made the point that if he could pick it up why couldn’t he carry it to a trashcan rather than throw it into the park. How could he justify that as a better place for it. He replied by suggesting that I kiss a certain part of his body that I wouldn’t care to see even in my imagination no less put my lips to. I’m really not the confrontational type. But sometimes I just can’t stop myself. I offered to take him up on his suggestion and that he should oblige by dropping his draws. Needless to say this wasn’t going anywhere and having reached the limit of my involved interest I ran on. On my second loop around the park I looked for the bottle intending to pick it up. It was nowhere to be found.