Last year when the city garbage collection was on strike, I posted a story about the problem, when the press was calling Bangalore as Garbage City. But the strike wasn't the problem, not really.
When I first arrived in Bangalore in July 2012, it struck me as almost a border town; a bit downtrodden, which was likely the impact of litter everywhere. Like most places you get used to things, and so I barely notice it anymore.
A week ago I was with friends outside of one of the guys apartments. They were having a smoke as we chatted, and we were eating. When I had a napkin that I wanted to throw, it struck me: there are NO trash receptacles, anywhere!
No doubt if they had some it would still take quite a while to change old habits. In NYC in the '70 there was litter everywhere, people thought nothing of opening a cigarette pack, or some other packaging and dropping the wrapping on the ground.
But in time, with trash recepticales a plenty, the perception of citizen responsibility -- to keep "their" city clean -- took hold, and today NYC is pretty litter free.
Come on Bangalore, it takes a first step to make the big leap from garbage city to clean city.
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