Litterbugs

People here love to litter! If you're opening a beer; throw the cap on the ground! If you're done with it; throw the bottle in the drain! If you're finished with your Styrofoam food container, just toss it in the grass! Cigarette wrappers, butts, and packs...throw it on the ground! It doesn't matter who's watching or where you are, littering is a culturally-acceptable practice. It's strange, though; there's always work for someone to do in cleaning up, and the trash does not accumulate the way it should with all the tossing going on around here.
Also, there's no recycling...don't know if I mentioned it before. If you buy a 6-pack of glass bottles, you pay $1.80TT ($.30US) as a deposit fee. It's almost worth the money NOT to collect the bottles and bring them back to the store. And when you bring them back, you need to stand in line and then wait for someone to handwrite some slip of paper that you then have to give to the cashier when you're checking-out, and then they have to call someone over and validate it. It's a real piss-poor system (as most "systems" are), and really deters you from recycling.
By the way: Trash is burned in the middle of the island here. You can smell it when you're on the highway, and sometimes you'd think they took every dirty diaper in the country, put it in one single pile and lit it on fire using urine as a stimulant to the flames. One of the poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods lays just across the highway from the landfill. When first getting here I was told, "if you ever get a flat tire here, keep on driving. Do not stop for anything." And it's true: In this area of the highway, people walk out in front of cars, throw things in front of cars, drag trash items (metal, toilets, wood) in front of cars just so you'll be forced to stop. Once you do, they'll rob you blind. When everyone is stuck in traffic in this area it's fine, but I never catch myself driving through it alone when traffic is flowing; you always want a buddy car with you. A few months ago a man got into a serious accident here. He wasn't assisted, but was robbed of $10,000 (he was a driver for a company).
Anyway, lesson for today: People litter (but the place isn't all that dirty and someone always has a job cleaning), trash burning is very smelly, and if you're driving through the Beetham and get a flat, keep driving (and I think if you're driving here and somebody steps out in front of you, try and swerve around them).