In the peak time of summer holidays in France, a recent story ordered by Vinci Autoroutes (one of the companies in charge of highways and road infrastructures in France) highlighted the fact that one out of three drivers does not bother and throws waste by the window while driving.
ONE OUT OF THREE.
According to this study, this includes cigarette butts (14 % of the surveyed travellers), packaging and food wraps, and organic products. In 2017 for instance, Vinci calculated a mere tonne of waste average per highway kilometer!
An other appaling example: on a highway section between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille, a region in Southern France prone to fire hazards in the summer, up to 200 cigarette butts per kilometer per day were collected last year.
The drivers' reasons and comments were as appaling and absurd as the gesture itself:
The number of bins on the way is not sufficient, or bins are too full to proceed;
People do not want to drive around with waste in their car until the next stop;
Some claim that taxes should pay for clean-up;
"If others do it, I can do it";
"It is not only the French behaving this way and tourists are as bad";
Some just do not care at all and consider this issue as "their own business".
And while there are a lot of options of nice-looking bins and car accessories available for those who do not want to use a plastic or paper bag as temporary bin, the only word that comes to my mind is: MORONS.
Read the article here - in French.
Pic/CC0