I love nature and feel that we should treat it better.
Ahem, brother!
It looks like the solar panels are working out well for you. I haven't jumped on that boat yet, but I've been eyeing it for awhile. As things stand, I try to reduce power usage when I can. That's not because of price, but just because I want to be less wasteful. God knows corporations and the rich are wasteful enough with their power usage... my savings can't even begin to compare to their waste, but I figure maybe I can be a good example to someone. Anyway, I love the idea of solar. Until fusion power becomes a reality, solar may be the best clean energy most of us have access to. I hope the technology keeps improving making it even better.
I don't litter, recycle to keep waste out of landfill
Unfortunately even in Japan, litter is everywhere. There is an additional problem from the effort to fight litter. Trash bins aren't common in public, the idea being instead that if people are forced to keep their trash with them to throw away at home they will be less wasteful. However, plastic bottle recycle bins are common in public. Maybe you can see the problem. What people tend to do instead is throw their trash into the recycle bins. Often they stuff it in the bottles, which I imagine makes the recycling process harder.
A Japanese buddy of mine walks around the city for two hours every morning picking up litter. He's amazing. I don't go to that extreme, but I do usually carry a few small bags when I go out and I pick up the litter I see along my daily routes.
I'm surprised to hear about the little issue there.
We have litter, but surprisingly little really. There are bins everywhere and people use them...except for smokers, that special breed of entitled asshole who think it's ok to flick their butts all of the place with abandon.
All homes have three bins, general, green and recycle and they're responsibly dealt with (allegedly) when they get to waste transfer stations.
Anyway, there's litter, but not much. I don't think I'd like to see litter all over the place. It would depress me.
I'm glad I have solar, my regret being I didn't get it sooner. It's an outlay for sure, but worth it for the savings. I got a decent system on both houses and they're repaying me handsomely. It's a drop in the ocean as far as actual reduction of carbon footprint compared to China and India, orporstions, mining and all the other main offenders, but it's something.