Sensible, certainly, but above all useless. Well done to the volunteers, but it mainly replaces Sunday mass or worship to ease one's conscience a little. The system produces plastic by the tonne, fills its pockets, and manages the remarkable feat of delegating the clean-up to those who gain absolutely nothing from it.

The worst part is that it makes us feel good. You put the packaging found on the ground into the bag, the area becomes clean again and your brain gives you your little dose of satisfaction. "I've done my bit." It's rewarding. And that's exactly where we're beautifully conned. Because we have the illusion of solving the problem, whilst we're bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon whilst the machine, behind the scenes, continues to churn out its millions of tonnes.

In the end, our clear conscience serves as a patch for an unsustainable economic model. We clean up, so we feel we're not complicit. Our guilt breathes easier. Meanwhile, the system has no reason to change: why bother reducing at source when well-meaning people absorb the mess for free?

And the most ironic thing is that the best citizens become the best shock absorbers of the problem. Their moral sense becomes an invisible infrastructure. Free, reliable, renewable. A more practical resource than any technological innovation.

But at least I'm happy to walk periodically along our shores and have the pleasure of occasionally seeing a Switzerland as it's sold to us, squeaky clean. For that alone, I can still thank those many hands.

I've just read the article linked below, according to which the SBB is removing rubbish bins from seating areas. The decision-making bureaucratic apparatchiks promise greater cleanliness, more efficient cleaning and cost savings amounting to millions; naturally, the exact opposite will be the case, with this "don't think beyond the end of your own nose" decision also working diametrically against the concern being debated here, among other things. Of course, the apparatchiks - instead of admitting their mistake - will be calling for a "catalogue of fines" after only a short time, which would certainly be justifiable if there were proper rubbish bins in public spaces instead of these "designer bins" with tiny slots where you're also "allowed" to scrape your hands, provided they aren't already full after the third McDonald's customer. I keep saying it: if you want to recycle and save raw materials, then make it easy and cheap for people instead of difficult and expensive...🤪🤑😭🥱😜