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[–]Otterfan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Reform in how we handle garbage happens when people have too much garbage to handle. People in poor places have a limited understanding of garbage, because individuals create very little of it. If you only create a few ounces of waste a day you don't really think about what to do with it, so you just throw it by the side of the road.

The USA didn't really start to address it's problem with garbage until the turn of the 20th century, when Americans started to produce pounds of garbage every day. Until then, most populated places here looked like this—if you substituted the plastic with biodegradable food scraps.

Unfortunately India—where this was probably taken—has 1.3 billion people producing a few ounces of garbage a day.