[lm28469]

> There are immaculately clean cities in east asia

Isn't it because they have armies of cleaning people in the streets ? A friend of mine told me about it, I think he was in South Korea, Seoul perhaps, at the time. He told me people mostly act the same but their cities are more efficient at cleaning the mess before it piles up. I don't know if there are other laws similar to that [0] but it probably explain some behaviours too.

I agree with the underlying point though, some people just don't give a shit. I visited a small greek island last year and was appalled to see that locals were throwing their trash, old furnitures, construction materials, &c. over a cliff, straight to the ocean.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_ban_in_Singapore

[jshowa3]

I've frequented China quite a lot the past year. They usually have people that clean the streets regularly as part of their job. They often hall two wheel carts around to carry their equipment and large brush that has fallen from trees.

However, I don't think Chinese do a great job of separating their trash that well despite having recycle bins and trash bins clearly labeled on the streets.

[bennylope]

I noticed this when I was [briefly] in Seoul. It was a combination of individual and presumably municipally employed workers cleaning up trash throughout the city and private employed workers cleaning around larger commercial buildings. Outside of banks, too, I remember people hosing down and washing the sidewalks. That's something I haven't seen in the US (not with such regularity, at the very least).

[dasloop]

Not in Japan. No armies of cleaning people are required.

[s_y_n_t_a_x]

Not true. They clean it every morning. There's trash covering the streets of Tokyo before it gets picked up.

Source: live in Shibuya for 3 months every year.

[Isamu]

There was an article recently of a new wet vacuum cleaner they were using in trains to clean the vomit left from the hard-drinking salarymen.

[jstarfish]

What? They literally keep an army of senior citizens employed on municipal crews to pick up trash and scrape gum off of surfaces.

[mistermann]

Kids clean their own schools in Japan.

https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/stor...

Whereas in the West, we just tell ourselves stories like all cultures are equal, and even though it's obviously not even remotely true, most people seem to believe it.