I take an express bus to work every day, and for the most part the bus used is a double decker bus. Not that it really matters, as the same applies on any bus (or, really, anywhere).

In the photo above, you can see an empty water bottle. This is perfectly recyclable, and funny enough today (May 13, 2016) happened to be recycling day for cans and bottles and such.
That bottle is not mine, it was dropped by someone as they entered the bus. What happened was, they were holding it (or it was in their bag, I couldn't really tell), and they were headed up the stairs to get to the upper deck of the bus. When the bus started moving, it fell out.

This wouldn't be too out of the ordinary, except for the fact that they let it fall all the way down the stairs. Didn't even make an attempt at retrieving it!

It's understandable; the bus is moving, there are stickers everywhere stating not to stand in the stairwell while the bus is moving, and it's a dangerous place to be anyways. But come on people, it's not hard to grab the damn thing, stand on the lower floor for maybe ten seconds while making sure the debris doesn't fall again, then take the stairs again. It's ten seconds.
Plus, you factor in the fact that it is a moving vehicle. That "innocent" little piece of litter is now going to go on a thrill ride all over the bus, slamming into walls, doors, peoples' feet, all the while making a massive racket!

I won't stand for that, so as soon as it fell all the way down the stairs, I grabbed it. And held on to it, with the intention of placing it in the recycling where it belonged in the first place. Yes; I held some random water bottle for the majority of the duration of that hour-long journey. Plus, I didn't even find a recycling bin at all, so I ended up taking it all the way to work with me, a full hour and ten minutes later.

That's a long journey for trash to take!

It's not even trash that is the only thing that comes flying down the stairwells at high speed; I've seen cellphones, books, purses and even entire backpacks hurtle down the stairs. All things that you'd think people would take more care of than they do.

Perhaps not, we live in the McWalmart society now.

I guess my whole point is as follows: keep hold of your stuff, whether it's trash or not. And if it falls, at least try and pick it up so it doesn't inconvenience anyone else. The world is not your trash can, and not everyone is willing to pick your stuff up for you.