I saw a feature on tv awhile back. I believe it was in South America. The mayor ? handed out garbage bags, and told the people that if they keep the town clean, they can trade a bag of garbage for some groceries. That would work here. Good food, tho..not just white rice, and Duplex cookies...hee hee...give them something better than that. ...ok I have to go throw a dart at my Bush dartboard...it's essential...every time I think about his hatred for the health of the planet, and the people, I have to act.....one...two...three..
its a nice idea, but wouldn't people kinda create more garbage just to get food then? is there 'rules' attached regarding recycling and reusing?
Well, I agree, but the really dirty areas would have the option of cleaning roadsides, and if little old ladies in tennis shoes notice a difference in the appearance of the neighborhoods, then the goodies get better. If homeowners can wander in front of their own homes, cleaning up beer bottles, and junk, then people who sit around with nothing to do can do the same. And when the bags are turned in, people get a choice of goodies. I know I would happily support a program of that nature. Dirty places are a turn-off. Who wants to patronise filthy towns ? OK blame my Moon in Virgo, but, I like to see people clean, and busy, and happy. When I lived In Alaska, we took our garbage to an open semi trailer, paid for by taxes. There were days I wanted to drop the owners of stray dogs into the dumpster, too.
I saw something about that on PBS once. What I saw, at least, was about a small city in Brazil. The reason he did was that many of the poor areas of town had streets so narrow the garbage trucks couldn't get there. He bought excess fruit from farmers for cheap. He also got the lawns in the city parks trimmed by letting farmers graze their sheep. He cleaned the parks by having homeless kids (homeless kids might be a common problem in Brazil) clean them part-time and giving them clothes and food and getting them in school too. He also made a lot of one-room houses so there weren't many homeless families (this is Brazil, when it isn't raining, you don't need to be indoors.). The guy sounds like the sort of low-tech genius who could use brainpower instead of cubic yards of money to solve a lot of the world's problems. I wonder if anyone's tried to kill him yet.
I think it's a great idea! You'd need some supervision though or people would just stuff the bags with garbage taken from containers, or stuff the bags with god-knows-what that's handy (mud, leaves?) instead of picking up the litter... well not everyone would but I'm sure quite a few would cheat. But it's still a great idea.
