Friday 10 August 2007

Accidental Re-cycling

Discarding things by throwing them out of the HDB window is a seductive habit. It starts innocently with some speck of fluff or a hair. Easier to just drop it out of the window than walk to a bin. No harm, no foul, right?. It might have been blown in from outside anyway. For me, it stops there, but I see others with fewer inhibitions.

First up are the smokers who can't be bothered to walk downstairs but don't want to smoke in their home, so end up stood by the window for 5 mins. No prizes for where the cigarette butt ends up. The ultimate of this is the chap who emptied his ashtray out of his 12th floor window, causing a confetti of ash and butts to float down.

There's a whole middle area of sweet wrappers, bits of food but the one that intrigues me are Q-Tips, you know, the double-ended cotton buds on a stick. They are the second most common item seen on the ground, indeed I was nearly hit by one but I can't figure out what they are being used for. It is personal hygiene or cleaning a mobile phone earpiece? It's proving tricky to find out.

Since most people have their living room windows open most of the time, I imagine those on lower floors are getting a raw deal here with junk thrown out above being blown or sucked back in. I've found thngs on my kitchen floor that I know are not mind so it's real scenario. If I then threw it out the window, the cycle could repeat. Litter that does reach the ground is swept up by the cleaning crew who are out by 6am but I wonder what is the record for the number of times it was thrown away?

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