Camille Cares

Even though CamilleCares is the place where you can catch up on my newest cooking videos, recipes and photographs of food and drink.  In this post, I must focus the human produced epidemic of Littering!  I do not litter!  I used to as a child, but as I have grown-up, I recognize the importance of trash disposal, recycling, the result of litter and its harm to the environment.  I am extremely disturbed to report that many New Yorker’s are not aware of this and do not see the harm in their irresponsible behavior of littering.  This is an ongoing phenomenon that started since the beginning of time in NYC.  However, today, CamilleCares has had enough, NEW YORK CITY LITTER BUGS and their LITTERING must be brought to the light.  Litter bugs must be stopped.  People, we must stop adding fuel to the fire unless we openly welcome detriment to our survival and future environment!

Like most issues, this post was motivated by a surprising incident on a normal day in NYC.  The other day, I was walking down Broadway in Tribeca and young man threw his half-smoked, lit cigarette into the MTA subway grate on the sidewalk.  Initially, I thought nothing of it, but then once my common sense hit me, I became quickly aggravated for numerous reasons.  I thought of the amount of trash New Yorkers accumulate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.  I then thought about a person’s conscience and how one decides to litter the common street and public space.  Why would someone do this?  Why do we throw our litter into the streets?  Why do we think it is okay to litter our sidewalks, gutters and in front of our homes and places of commerce?

     From spitting to tossing cigarettes, I think that New Yorkers need a thorough overhaul in the sanitation department.   Is it possible to get folks to wear adult size mirrors? Are we oblivious to the trash in our streets and sidewalks?  We are disgusting, let’s face it.  There are no if, ands or buts, well I guess there are butts, in regards to keeping your trash to yourself and finding a responsible place to dispose of all your trash.   By the way, has anyone thought about the future?  What example are we making when we teach the future that it is okay to litter the streets?  

I am enraged by our lackadaisical attitude and disgusting nature.  Have we really thought about the harm we are causing?  What about fire safety?  This man did not take the time to out his cigarette before he tossed it into the subway grate.  No, I want to think this man had no thought process to his actions.  He simply was done with his cigarette and flicked it from his fingers into the grate.  Why not?  Everyone else here is a litter bug, look at the streets, its disgusting.  Whether due to neglected sanitation pick-up for one illegitimate reason or the other, our streets are by far some of the worse in America.  But whose responsibility is it to keep the streets clean? 

Is that even a question?  We rely way too heavily on city employees to make things “better” in this city.   As fellow citizens, it is OUR responsibility to protect and clean up our streets one block at a time.  It is our daily activity that makes the difference.  Ask yourself do you litter?  Do you keep your trash with you until you find a receptacle?  Do you pick up trash that others have left behind?  Do you toss your gum or candy wrapper, because it is small?  Do you drop your cigarette butt on the ground?  Do you stomp it out then toss it?  Have you ever tossed your cigarette into the train grate as well? 

The immediate concern here is fire.  According to the NYC MTA system,   many of the train delays, injuries and fires are caused by human litter that finds it way onto the tracks below ground.  “Fire and smoke conditions along the track and in stations have been a leading cause of subway delays for several years, and 2007 was unfortunately no different.” In 2007,  ”4,881 trains were delayed as a result of fire/smoke conditions. That’s up from 2006 when fire/smoke conditions caused 3,484 delayed trains. Compared to 2003 when fire/smoke conditions delayed 2,826 trains, those delays have risen by 73%.   Newspapers and subway tracks are not a good combination,” said Steven A. Feil, Senior Vice President of NYC Transit’s Department of Subways. “The papers can cause fires when ignited by electrical equipment and, when it rains, can lead to flooding when they block drainage areas.”

Between 2003 and 2007, the amount of trash removed from the system has increased 17%, soaring from 15,300 tons in 2003 to 17,862 tons in 2007.  New York City has over 662 miles of train tracks, which means a lot of space to protect from our own litter.  We can do this, we just have to be proactive and remember to take your newspaper, soda can, water bottle, lotto scratch cards, paper pizza plate, brown paper bag, peanuts wrapper, chip bag and all other loads of crap New Yorker’s throw away onto the streets, sidewalks, subway platforms, cars and tracks. 

We can do it NYC, especially if we claim WE LOVE N.Y.C.  or else every sidewalk, block, neighborhood, town and county will start to resemble this…