I live in the boonies.
My daughter and I were driving the other day, and were disgusted with the amount of garbage in the ditches along side of the road.
I said to her "I bet you someone could walk across Canada and live off of nothing but the empties they find at the side of the road"
She agree and challenged me to a test run the next time I went for a walk.
Last night, I headed out for my walk - 4.4kms (or ~2.8 miles). I had a large shopping bag, and had rules - one side of the road only, "easy pickings" only (I'm not going to go crawling through a swamp for an empty), and pick up any bottle or can, not just the ones that make money.
Just a little over half way, I was done. Packed full. $4 in empties and more that I just threw in the recycling.
Now the questions;
1) what is wrong with people that they can't wait to throw it in a recycling bin/garbage can?
2) could I make it across Canada living off only recyclables (assuming I have some get up that allows for me to strap a large amount on my back)? If not, the States, which has 10 times the population and, assumably, 10 times the crap on the road?