Recently Saretta has blogged about the large amount of litter and garbage on the streets near her home on the Adriatic in southern Italy (Aug. 2 & 10). I was feeling pretty smug, thinking to myself, ‘Well, at least here in the north there is not nearly so much littering.’
Ha.
It is true,things are not as bad as they once were. The complete kitchen, including cabinets and appliances, that was dumped over the side of our road in one of the ravines has been removed (by whom? when?) and nothing of its ilk has taken its place.
A lot of other rubbish has been along the roadside as long as we’ve lived here; I guess I hardly see it any more. But there is plenty of new garbage every day, as I was unhappily reminded when I took my walk this morning.
Not that things are much better in the States. We saw this enchanting sight outside a roadside stop in New Mexico last year.
What I love about the States, though, is the teams of eager do-gooders that get out there and clean up after others. There is no Adopt-a-Highway program here in Italy that I know of, but wouldn’t it be great if there were? I’ve decided to adopt the little stretch of road I walk along almost every day. I’m sure the neighbors will think I’m a raving lunatic, 
especially as I wear one of those yellow kitchen gloves while doing it (you can be too careful, but this isn’t). ‘Look!’ they’ll say, ‘l’Americana thinks she’s a duck!!’
I don’t care. I’ll enjoy my walk more without looking at all the plastic along the verge. It would be nice if people would stop littering; it would also be a miracle. Here’s a picture of the fruits (ha ha) of my first day’s labor as a do-gooder. I walked less than .25 mile because my bag was filled.
An Ex-Expatriate 
You are such a good citizen, Joe! I’d love to see you on your tractor here hauling fridges out of the brush. We can only hope if someone sees us picking up trash they’ll think twice about dropping it… but I’m a pessimist. Great to hear from you.
I live in NW CT. For the past 11 years I have been walking a familiar, rural route in my neighborhood. When I started, years ago, I encountered everything from discarded tires to old stereo sets, beer cans, old bottles etc. etc. I started my campaign to clean up the area by cruising with my tractor w/bucket loader, picking up all the big “stuff” as I went along. It was great exercise climbing on and off the tractor hundreds of times. Over the months, neighbors commented and stopped when they saw me walking the road with a large plastic bag. Now, I can get away with doing a real “cleanup walk” twice each year along with sporatic “pick me ups” . I try to remember to carry a small plastic grocery bag with me when I walk. It’s a small way to give back to the community and a quiet way to make others think about doing the same thing.
We didn’t pick up litter as children either, Heejung – but if we’d ever thrown anything on the road our parents would have had something to say! It really is too bad when the buildings are let go – it happens in American cities too…
What I like to live in outskirt of Milan is somehow clean. At my school ages, we were out somedays and cleaned the school nearby. Therefore we were taught not to throw trash outside. Italians are not be done like this at school, Francesco said. In the center of Milan, it is full of doodling(?) of almost buildings…. And some buildings are left deserted. It is really pitty….
Do you suppose they feed the garbage to the worms??!
A sign along a bypass road that avoids the “traffic” of poor decrepit downtown
Buzzards Bay tells us that this stretch of road has been adopted by the Cape Cod Worm Farm.
My brother Sean also takes big trash bags with him as he walks around the neighborhood. You are both inspirations.
Here it is mostly cigarette packs, plastic drinks bottles, and wrappings from pastries or focaccia. And of course endless numbers of plastic bags, some of which are now biodegradable, thank goodness.
Ah – the laws of supply and demand never do seem to apply to litter: there’s always much more trash than the official, volunteer community, or individual cleaner-upper can deal with. In the course of walking the same stretch of road in Vermont, I have been amazed/discouraged by the constancy of litter. I take a plastic shopping bag with me and try to do a micro-analysis of the psyche of the litterer in this neck of the woods – smokers, beer drinkers, whatever… but all of them in the end just downright self-serving slobs.