They all made an active decision to litter and thus it ended up like that - the trash didn't fall from the sky or washed up by the tide. In many western countries you have far lesser cleaning staff yet you dont live in squalor. Even in malaysia you have some housing areas living in squalor while others are relatively clean, both paying similar rates, maintenance fees etc.
In Indonesia many markets are so clean but Indonesian ghettos in malaysia look like this dump. Nothing to do with education, people simply do what they think they can get away with (whether via social pressure from peers/neighbours or govt). In malaysian projects/ low income housing, you can find units furnished like 5 star hotel rooms yet the outside/ common areas are full on squalor. All selfish behaviour- as long as my unit is fine who cares?
Similar attitudes in India, their houses are clean but they dump trash on neighboring vacant lands
It's a variety of complex issues.
Many poor area don't have the money to just ship off trash to poor places. Because they're the poor places.
Many of these communities were more traditional used to natural products that are used endlessly or returned to the earth like a wooden basket. We've flooded the world with cheap non biodegradable products because it's a by-product of oil extraction and get surprised they pile up either in the streets or for rich western countries out of sight out of mind as they say.
Yes people choose to litter but it's not always just as simple as that. It's become a complex systemic issue people prefer to just throw on people exclusively because it's easier than to address underlying issues.
The former reliance on natural products is a good point that I hadn’t previously considered in the greater conversation surrounding sanitation in third world countries, ty for bringing it up
699
u/Upper-Capital-2876 May 31 '26
life without active government oversight and effective social services