The responses from both sides are pretty similar. There are two main categories 1) they would pick it up 2) they would walk away. The responses are pretty evenly divided between the two. A few students also said that they find it disgusting to litter.

I found that a lot of MIT students associated seeing someone litter with emotions. For example, several students commented that they would feel bad or disappointed. I think part of it is because of a large emphasis on taking care of the environment and recycling in our school systems. For example, I feel bad throwing a soda can in the trash, knowing that it could be reused. What is the recycling program like in France and is there a lot of time spent in schools education students on the importance of recycling and protecting the environment?

Je suis d'accord avec les analyses precedentes.Je rajouterais neamoins que quelque eleves francais ont le souci de faire remarquer a la personne qui a jete le papier que son comportement n est pas adaptee,il y a donc une reelle volonte d eduquer chez certains francais.Je voudrais poser une question aux eleves du MIT... Si vous sentez aussi contrarie et mal a l aise en constatant d tels comportements,pourquoi vous vous comptetez d etre decu et vous n essayez pas d intervenir plus directement? Je sais qu il est inutile de corriger les gens directement mais je crois au il est aussi inutile d sentir la deception sans pouvoir agir!!

En effet, les réactions sont à peu près les mêmes, mais les étudiants du MIT parlent plus de leurs sentiments alors que pour les étudiants français ce point n'est pas du tout abordé, il se degage par contre une volonté de s'adresser à la personne et de lui faire remarquer que ce qu'elle a fait est sale, dans le but qu'elle ne recommence pas a l'avenir.

En reponse à Stephanie, à l'école, on n'a pas de cours sur la protection de l'environnement ou sur le recyclage, en tout cas, jamais pendant ma scolarité, je n'en ai eu, même pas de sensibilisation. Et je pense que peu de personnes en France se sentent mal quand elles ont mis à la poubelle quelque chose qui pourrait être recyclé. A l'école polytechnique, les déchets ne sont pas vraiment triés, il existe un conteneur à papier et une benne à verre sur tout le campus, ce qui n'est pas très pratique au quotidien donc tout va dans la même poubelle en général. Mais dans beaucoup de villes en France, les déchets sont triés un minimum.

Il y a aussi en ce moment une campagne de publicite a la télé pour réduire la quantité de déchets et je crois que de plus en plus de personnes se sentent concernées par la protection de l'environnement mais les comportements changent très lentement et c'est un phénomène assez recent; nos voisins allemands ont beaucoup d'avance sur nous.

Qu'en est-t-il chez vous?

I wanted to comment a little on Stephanie and Lise's posts. I grew up in Texas, where recycling was not at all emphasized. We did not have recycling bins in our school or our homes. In fact, when I was little, I remember burning our trash. I know you are thinking, wow, Texas is really backwards. However, I think that this lack of environmental awareness stems from the conservative nature of Texas (and the South in general). So, although some parts of the US are really working on recycling more and reducing the amount of trash, other parts aren't nearly as progressive.

In response to Tarek, I think that throwing trash away was drilled into our heads when we were little. Now, we do it without thinking and get angry at someone who violate the rule, just as our teachers and parents used to get angry at us when we violated it. But, I would say that the majority of Americans don't care enough about the environment to pick up someone else's trash. We're too busy with the rest of our lives to bend down and pick something up that we didn't throw down.

You guys might think this is funny, but when I was little, I remember burning our trash too. (I'm also from Texas) My grandparents lived out in the country, and back in the eighties, the trash truck only came by once every two or three weeks. Sometimes they had way too much trash and they didn't want it to fester for two weeks out on the porch, so they burned it. I'm sure my grandparents didn't want to hurt the environment, but they didn't know any better. Texas has changed a lot though, I think. We had a recycling bin at our high school, and the teachers were always encouraging us to "save the earth." In fact, I remember watching comericals with the motto "Don't Mess with Texas" to encourage drivers to stop polluting and trashing our highways.(it happens a lot--> One time I was driving home from school, and I saw some people in the back of a pick-up truck drop a mattress onto the middle of the road! Another time, I saw some guys throw big huge trash bags out the window while going 60mph on a highway.) Even though parts of the South aren't necessarily as environment-conscious as the rest of the country, I think we're trying our best to deal with the situation.

Do people in France pollute the highways? If so, how is this problem addressed?