While on facebook, I posted a question asking about the largest contributor to the problems of the world. Some gave one-to-two-worded answers ("greed" and "poverty" are two popular choices), although someone did say something about apathy, to which is something I can see.

However, for me, it's more of a source of annoyance than anything else, which is why I posted the left image on two common areas in my building.

It seems that people simply do not know how to read or are just too lazy and expect others to clean up after them. On two occasions, I have spotted two items tossed with reckless abandon in the trash disposal areas. I have a big enough beef with recyclable items such as used clothing and obsolete electronics getting turfed, but even more so when they are placed in random areas in the pretense that someone else will find use for them.

In previous years, some municipalities would hold "clean-up weeks", in which people would put out mass amounts of supposedly reusable items like old televisions and furniture, however, it became abused, as items not allowed (old refrigerators, construction debris) was also put out. This may be another holdover from that mentality, which unfortunately doesn't really work.

When charitable organizations and proper recycling facilities exist, it upsets me when they are not used and the onus is placed on people who are ultimately not the ones responsible for creating the mess in the first place.

But then, it could also argue that this is also a form of apathy.

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