Mexico Tells Citizens To Swallow Their Gum

It is estimated that a square yard of Mexico City sidewalk has 70 blobs of discarded gum, making it twice as gum filled as the bottom of an average 3rd grader's desk. To fight the problem authorities have used expensive sidewalk steam-cleaners, natural chewing gums that break down and now they are telling citizens to swallow it. "People just spit their gum out right on the sidewalk," marveled Paula Moran, a 32-year-old secretary. "It's ugly, and it's even worse when you step on it -- especially when it's still warm."

Yup.

[happy_place]

When I lived in Italy (20 years ago) this was common practice, all the piazzas were covered with the black dots of chewed gum. Public squares are a huge social gathering where teens gathered especially on the weekends. The crowds were thick and it would be impossible to enforce. it also seemed like everyone smoked back then, so cigarrette butts were everywhere. And when it rained, the puddles filled with 'log jams' of used butts. Nasty.

Not impossible...

[denzacar]

Just ask Chinese how they handled spitting in public before the Olympics.

Or Germans that have special squads that patrol parks and squares spying on people feeding pigeons.
You start fining people 20 Euros per offense like Germans do, and pretty soon streets will be clean.

I misread that ..

[Alain Williams]

Given that the article below was Porn Industry Looks For a Bailout [slashdot.org] this title of ''Mexico Tells Citizens To Swallow Their Gum'' shocked me.