Do people in Europe litter(throw trash on the ground) as much as Americans do?

Question

I get friggin sick when I see someone throw trash out their window.

Answer 1

Guess you've never seen Amsterdam, Paris or Berlin at 5AM!

Europeans litter just as much as Americans do - and European men pee in the streets too!

European cities just have much larger Sanitation Departments than American cities do - basically they pay a lot of people to keep their cities clean!

Answer 2

At the end of WW II neither Germany nor Japan's neighbors trusted them not to recover and go back to being aggressive *******. The US wanted to rebuild these two nations as a bulwark against Communist aggression. But, in order to insure their neighbors that they would not become a problem again, the US had to guarantee that they would not make trouble. During the Cold War we had an excuse to keep troops deployed in both countries. Since the end of the Cold War our fig-leaf has been a little obvious, but what we are essentially doing is keeping a lid on any aggressive tendencies our former enemies and erstwhile allies might develop in the near future. I would expect to see American occupation of Germany and Japan until about the middle of the 21s century. In Korea American troops guarantee the cease-fire signed in 1953. We didn't leave troops in South Vietnam in 1973 and that cease-fire only lasted two years. If we had left troops in place the North Vietnamese would never have invaded again in 1975.

Answer 3

Sometimes they do, especially in the larger cities. And once a place is littered other people get more careless too, letting stuff drop or just not bothering to pick it up when they accidentally drop something. We do clean & sweep shopping streets a lot, but take a look at them Saturday afternoon and you know it's necessary!

Quite some time ago I saw a young child who tried to throw a piece of paper in the trash, but let it drop, and her mom snapped at her when she bend over to pick it up.."don't do that, it's filthy, it's been on the ground!" Way to teach your children lady... I gave her a very filthy look, picked up the piece of trash and put it in the bin... I still remember that, a little child trying to pick up after herself and getting snapped at. :-(

Living in the Netherlands here.

Answer 4

I don't know I have never been to Europe. I NEVER EVER throw trash on the ground. I am no litter bug. I know what a trash can is and I know how to use it.

Answer 5

Americans do not THROW trash out their windows,the trash just sucks out as we roll the window down.I'm sorry that you get ill at the site of the trash being forced out our windows.Does this explanation help a little?It is the one that my 8 year old grandson gave me once, I tried not to laugh.......

Answer 6

They do in italy. It's the only European Country I have visited. One of the most surprising things to me was the air pollution in Italy and the strong smell of urine on the streets in Rome.

I find that in US it varies with the community. I live in a small town on a dirt road. The residents on our road go out and pick up all the litter. I filled up two giant garbage bags from litter in front of our property.

I think litterers should be fined and have to work 1 month picking up litter from the road.

Answer 7

In some countries, I found the cities generally cleaner, the Netherlands and Germany, for instance. But in some, like Belgium and France, the problem was way worse. Belgium as a whole was absolutely filthy.

Answer 8

Well remember that Europe is a continent , not just a country, so it varies according to countries usually.

For instance Holland and Belgium can be pristeen!

France varies according to the region, as does Italy.

Switzerland was super clean last visit.

Answer 9

i feel exactly the same. i actually picked up a cup some punk kid through out and walked up to his window after he had parked and said with a big smile-sir you dropped this by mistake and dropped it in his lap. for all he knows i could be some mentally challanged person.

Answer 10

No way: they do pick up after themselves more than Americans. i have seen business owners in Europe sweep the street in front of their shops everyday.