[atombender]

Cigarette butts seem to be the most common by count, but what about weight and volume?

On the streets of NYC, I don't really notice the cigarettes, but I do notice the enormous amount of plastic bags (much of it stuck in trees), plastic or paper cups, straws, takeout containers. And gum. If you ever look at a sidewalk and see dark splotches [1], that's discarded chewing gum. It's absolutely everywhere. Not as invasive, of course, just odd.

I don't know what SF is like, but NYC has a fascinatingly ugly system [2] where you're supposed to put trash and recycling out on the sidewalk for it to be collected, where it's effectively temporary litter. NYC's sanitation workers are notoriously careless about handling the trash, and my pet theory is that a sizable portion of street litter actually originates in the sanitation workers spilling trash on pickup day.

NYC's trash problem is also exacerbated by the fact that landlords can get away with not doing their part in keeping the outside of the building litter-free.

[1] https://www.ediblegeography.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/S...

[2] https://i.redd.it/x0iye2nog6m31.jpg

[MisterTea]

> NYC's sanitation workers are notoriously careless about handling the trash, and my pet theory is that a sizable portion of street litter actually originates in the sanitation workers spilling trash on pickup day.

DSNY, aka Sanitation, does not pick up trash from commercial businesses, only residencies. Businesses have to hire a private carter. Private carters are notorious for not giving two fucks. They have also been responsible for many pedestrian accidents as well.

I have never really noticed a surge in trash in the streets after DSNY comes by. Though, after schools opened, my house is around the corner from a public school and I see an immediate surge of snack wrappers tossed on my lawn. Same with the building I own near another school, wrapper trash all over.

[atombender]

I frequently see DSNY workers spill trash around when it's been improperly bagged, or the bag rips, or similar things. That shouldn't matter, but they don't care.

[Craighead]

and I constantly see private sanitation companies driving on the wrong side of the road, picking up half the litter they should, and then speeding off

Anecdotes dont mean much

[atombender]

So they're both bad. My point is that not only do people litter, the normal trash-handling process is also failing.

[ndespres]

In NYC, those piles of garbage bags also have the effect of being seen as de facto garbage bins, so people will throw their litter on top of the piles as if they are some type of container to hold their trash.

[hapless]

SF makes NYC look like Disneyland.

[etrautmann]

having just moved from SF to NYC, I think the trash bags in NYC are much worse than the majority of SF. Union Square and the Tenderloin are another phenomenon entirely though with feces and urine everywhere. This appears to be less common in NYC.

[fnord77]

I think SF gets that concentrated urine stench because it doesn't rain 2/3rds out of the year so the sidewalks never get cleansed.

NYC would stink just as bad if it didn't rain all summer. Maybe worse because of the higher population density.

[Roritharr]

And then people here wonder why some desperately don't want to live in a big city.

[IfOnlyYouKnew]

It's not like the smell of feces, albeit of animal origin, isn't one of the most salient features of rural living.

And any meat processing facilities within a five mile radius will quickly make you pay attention to wind direction forecasts.

[adrianN]

You say that as if keeping cities clean was impossible. Check out some Japanese cities.

[rob74]

And then they wonder why they have a rat problem...