Why do people throw out old motors, bicycles, anything metal into rivers and lakes instead of a junk yard or the trash system?

I have been watching magnet fishing and people love to toss stuff over bridges without a second thought on the environmental impact. Hiding evidence I can almost understand but not lawnmowers, car batteries, etc.

It seems deeper fines should be made to discourage this terrible behavior.

toddestan , (edited )

Junk also tend to accumulate in rivers and lakes. Once it's in there it's out of sight, out of mind - and even if you know it's there it is often difficult to remove.

When it finally gets cleaned up by bringing in the magnet or a barge to dredge it up or whatever, you're seeing years if not decades of stuff that's getting pulled out all at once.

InternetUser2012 ,

I may or may not have done this back in my youth. If I did, it was because I had no idea how to dispose of a broken engine block. Now, I could set it at the curb and a scrapper will have it in their truck within a couple hours.

Mubelotix ,
@Mubelotix@jlai.lu avatar

Sometimes it's stolen material

Darkassassin07 ,
@Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca avatar

The bridge was closer, costs $0 (as long as you're not caught by law enforcement), and it's difficult to enforce no-dumping laws as garbage doesn't ID it's owner most of the time and you just can't watch every dumping spot 24/7.

The people that do this are also not particularly wealthy. It's hard to justify the cost of transport and disposal fees when you struggle to feed and house yourself.

kakes ,

I see answers for why people dump junk, but not why they dump it on rivers/lakes in particular.

To remedy that: dumping junk isn't legal, and water is good at hiding things. If someone leaves their TV out on the street or whathaveyou, it might be traced back to them, but that's less likely in a river.

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Laziness and/or poverty. It costs money to dump stuff like that legally most of the time. It also requires going somewhere usually not close to you.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • kbinchat
  • All magazines
    •