A homeowner was in for a nasty surprise when their neighbor's renovation left them with an unwanted addition to their garden: thousands of tiny polystyrene balls.
A post on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit shared the unfortunate story.
The original poster shared how several of their neighbors had windows installed on their roofs. According to the Redditor, on all three occasions, the builders sawed directly into the roof, which caused thousands of polystyrene balls to cascade into the air and scatter across their garden.
"All my soil, grass and plants are polluted," the distressed OP said. They claimed that vacuuming the grass could help but that the only way to remove the plastic balls from the base of plants would be by hand. The OP also estimated that there were around 20,000 polystyrene balls in their garden.
According to The New York Times, most packaging, such as polystyrene, "can't be recycled. And if you throw it into a curbside bin, it'll likely end up polluting another part of the world."
These polystyrene balls are also an eyesore and damaging to gardens. The microplastics can shed and leach chemicals into the soil, negatively impacting plant health.
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On a practical level, the neighbor caused the homeowner to spend hours picking tiny polystyrene balls out of the soil, which is not very neighborly.
It's frustrating when neighbors affect your property, especially if their decisions cause damage. From plugging storm drains to fighting against the installation of solar panels to causing garden boundary issues, the people who live near us can have a tangible impact on our well-being and long-term sustainability.
One Reddit user commented, "The amount of plasticky crap that is everywhere, and I mean everywhere, would shock and horrify a lot of people if they actually realised."
Another Redditor wondered whether the balls could be pelletized fertilizer, but the OP shut down this speculation. "No, it's my own lawn," they said. "It's not fertiliser. My fertilizer is grey powder. Also, I found them everywhere and saw them fly."
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