[OC] I'm not convinced that education will solve the littering problem
I was at my friend's house since he needed my help with giving medication to his cat, so I go there daily. There's a wide desk in his home office which I use for loading medication into the cat's solid treats, and the cat is quite comfortable there so it's the best place to medicate without stressing it out too much.
Preparing the treats does make a bit of a mess (crumbs, small pieces, etc.) so once I was done, I cleared it up into the palm of my hand and while I was just about to throw it in the trash can in the kitchen, his wife suddenly remarked "Just throw it outside". Confused as to what she meant, I asked - "Outside?" and she told me to just throw it out of the window.
It's a gated community and the entire neighborhood is kept very clean and well-maintained by the staff, so it makes no sense to me why someone living in such a posh apartment would tell me to throw trash out of the window, especially when I was already about to go throw it in the proper trash anyway. To clarify, I asked "What if it falls on someone's head?" and she said "Let it fall" in a very dismissive tone.
She has a STEM PhD and did postdoc in Europe, and I'm baffled by the response. It's also not the first time when I've witnessed highly educated people behave this way. At this point, I'm not convinced anymore that education solves our problem with people not having any civic sense.