It's the same in Japan, man. We just carry our trash with us and throw it out at home, properly sorted. It's not hard. The difference in the Philippines is that everyone else just drops it where they stand. The lack of bins isn't the issue.

I don't think there's a country on Earth where littering is legal. Just put it in your pocket and bin it when you get back to your clean hotel room. That's the norm.

I've posted this before, but I'm a scuba instructor, trip coordinator and scout leader. We've been to the Philippines many times and try to take part in a cleanup or some event to give back each time. Every time, I'm shocked at how hard local governments make it just to do a service project like a beach cleanup. They want you to get permits and charge you a fee to do the work their own staff should be doing. Then, more often than not, YOU or YOUR GROUP has to pay to dump the trash you paid to collect. It's absolutely ridiculous. Pure government grift. No wonder no local cares whether their environment is clean.

Like most laws here, if there's no enforcement it doesn't matter.

If littering were legal, I wouldn't care about the lack of bins everywhere. Maybe people couldn't read my post?

I can't count how many times I've held a bottle or some trash 🗑, actively looking for a 🗑 bin, and couldn't find one. So frustrating and annoying. I swear they do it on purpose so they don't have to empty them later. But people here have no discipline at all.

Davao is soooo clean compared to everywhere else, and there aren't any extra trash cans. So maybe it's the people?