Somebody else's mess
As fall came to a close, I noticed our neighbors next door didn't bother bagging their leaves. They just blew them out onto the street for the city to clean up. Reminds me of this story about US greenhouse emissions:
Mr Connaughton hailed the “stabilisation” of greenhouse gas output as a victory for the US policy of avoiding mandatory targets and concentrating on new technologies, such as methane capture and “clean coal”.
The reason emissions have 'stabilized' in the US is the large scale offshoring of the manufacturing, chemical and fertilizer industries to locations like China and India. The hubris of empire - 'outsource' the costs, and what can't be outsourced, simply transfer to the next generation.