We bet that people who drive out into the “bush” or “wilderness” and illegally dump their trash would be infuriated if someone came to their property and emptied a load of garbage onto their lot.
After all, if garbage on their own land didn’t bother them they’d just toss their trash in their own yard and be done with it.
And yet, they don’t consider the owners of the land they use as their private garbage pit. It’s a really weird mental break.
Perhaps if they can’t actually see a house, they figure the land doesn’t belong to anyone? Even so, it’s a mystery as to what they think will happen to their old electronics, clothing, broken furniture, rusted car frames — to name but a few of the items that have been found over the years discarded by these worst of litterbugs. It’s especially a head-scratcher when there’s stuff they could have recycled, for free, at a transfer station or recycling facility.
We suspect they probably haven’t thought that far ahead, though. It’s more of an out of sight, out of mind phenomenon. Once it leaves their hands, or their vehicle, they think only of a clean getaway, not the dirty mess they leave behind. As long as they don’t have to deal with it anymore, it’s all good.
Except, of course, that it isn’t. That land they dump on belongs either to an individual, company, or, very often, to the community. How much trash has the Cowichan Valley Regional District had to spend our money clearing out of our woods in the last decade? How many private citizens have had to dispose of construction debris and other junk that didn’t belong to them on their own dime?
So dumpers, how would you feel if you had to pay, all of a sudden, for a heaping pile of refuse somebody furtively discarded on your front lawn?
Consider that next time you have the urge to dump and run.
