I suppose the term "trans corner" is a bit misleading in Vietnam since basically anywhere that isn't a national monument to Ho Chi Minh is filled with trash. Seriously, the lack of environmental care or awareness in this country is pretty nuts. They do a better job in the tourist areas than they bother with in the parts of town that are mostly just local people, so I guess that is something.
One area that I regularly walk past on most days is a series of ill-contrived recycling bins as well as seating areas that are meant to double as some sort of planter. In the past the planters were neglected, the plants died, and then the uncaring masses filled up the plant areas with garbage which is tradition here or something. I don't know.
The recycling boxes kind of amuse me in a shameful way because at this one corner we have the old, completely unused, recycling box that basically was ignored or misused as soon as it was put there. It was evident that the people were not going to use this thing the way that it was intended so what's the logical thing to do after it fails? Well apparently the government answer is to put a new one right next to it so that one can be unused or decay or be stolen just like the first one.
If it isn't working just put another one there that is basically the same thing as before right? That's the recipe for success.
Thankfully the planter benches are looking a bit better than they previously did.
The plant benches had actual plants in them and I was stunned to see this seeing as how the first round of these things simply were filled up with garbage. I walk past this spot nearly every day and honestly, I have only ever once seen anyone sitting at this thing. It doesn't help that it is made almost entirely out of plastic, which is a massive problem in this country.
Thankfully, there wasn't a bunch of garbage in the plant areas and I only saw one bottle. It was a beer bottle and 90% of the people in this area are foreigners so somehow this makes me even more sad since the beer bottle was almost certainly put there by a foreigner. This is within sight of the recycling bins yet there are some people that are so lazy that they would rather put it in the planting box.
I now make an effort to check the planting boxes every time I walk past there and clean them out if I can. If I am going to do a bunch of bitching about it I guess I could at least TRY to do my part in helping to keep it clean.
The fact that sign like this needs to exist says a lot about humanity. Is there really anyone out there that thinks it IS ok to litter? Take a walk around Vietnam for a bit and you will start to understand that it kind of does feel like the prevailing opinion is that the world is simply a place to toss garbage onto.
I really wish the people, both locals and tourists, could come to the realization that this place and the world in general would be a much nicer place if we were all just a bit more considerate.