Project Vision 21

Francisco Miraval

One morning, just a few days ago, I discovered that, with the help of the darkness of the night, somebody left two mattresses in a park near my house. At the time of writing these lines, the mattresses are still there. I wonder if that selfish act of throwing one’s garbage on a public place is just a symptom, or a new trend, or perhaps even a warning.

If it is a symptom, then perhaps it is an indication of the growing erosion of civility to the point that it is accepted to pass to others our daily garbage. If it is a trend, then perhaps I will see in the near future other items on top and next to those two mattresses. If it is a warning, then perhaps the mattresses are the heralds of the beginning of a new era.

Obviously, I am not talking about throwing away on the street just a little piece of paper. I am talking about the deliberate act of anonymously throwing your own garbage on a public place without any consideration for others and with the only purpose of satisfying one’s urgency to throw those objects away.

Some will argue that it is quite an exaggeration to talk about two used mattresses as threat to our society. But the day after I saw the mattresses, on a different place a few miles away, somebody left broken furniture. And in another place somebody discarded metal objects very close to the street.

In the area where I live it is very unusual to see large objects being discarded on public places. Therefore, I needed an explanation.

Somebody told me –and I think he is right– that the economic recovery after the last recession has allowed people to go and but large objects, including furniture and mattresses. At the same time, the demand for services to take the old objects to the municipal dumpster is so big that the cost for those services is now five times higher than just a few years ago. As the result, people throw old objects wherever it pleases them.

In other words, the good economic times promote the creation of spontaneous public dumpsters. And, if nothing is done, there will be soon many more of them.

In the context of all the great problems in our world, from the unending war in the Middle East to the unending crisis in Africa to the unending corruption in Latin America, one mattress or one home furniture out of place seems to be (and it is) an insignificant problem. But the thought-process behind such an action is not insignificant.

Throwing away anywhere what we don’t want only because it is convenient is a highly selfish act where the perpetrator seems to assume everybody else around him/her is there only to serve him/her or to face the consequences of not doing it. In left uncheck, such contempt for others and for the rights of others will certainly erode the structure of any society.