Trash

[numerobis]

Not exactly climate change, but still takin care of the environment:

Over a decade ago (!) when I was in grad school, I walked through a park to my office just about every day. A beautiful 20-minute walk. Slightly marred by just how much trash there was on the way.

Eventually I decided to pick up one particularly ugly piece that had been there for weeks. The next day, I picked up another. After two weeks, the path was almost clean -- I'd find a piece once in a while, but not all the time.

From that experience I took on the goal of picking up one piece of someone else's trash in a public place every day. It may seem Sysyphian at first, it actually does help. By having it be routine, i do more through than I can do in that feel-good day of volunteering (which I've also been known to partake in).

I've never mentioned this to anyone until last week, when I mentioned to my partner that in Iqaluit I would bump it up to two pieces given how bad it is here. She hadn't thought of doing anything about it until then; now she's taken on the habit. And so I resolved to talk more about my habit, in hopes it'll spread far and wide.

[Buddy]

Every big problem starts out as a small problem.  Every resolution to a big problem....usually starts out as a small step as well.  And little by little....that big problem all of the sudden becomes manageable and solveable.  You eat an elephant one bite at a time...... Keep up the good work (I pick up garbage as well).

[numerobis]

One important thing about this kind of activity: there's way more than any one person can do. So I have to artificially limit myself, or else I'd burn out.

[Tor Bejnar]

I remember visiting in New Zealand in the '70s where we very nearly never saw any trash strewn about.  (The one time I remember, my mom went out of her way to pick it up, and we carried it out.)  Later when I lived there, with more fast food options, I certainly saw 'misplaced' rubbish, especially when I hitchhiked.  It was very interesting when they came out with canned apple-orange juice (or a contract with a Middle Eastern country fell through, and cans [half in Arabic] flooded the market) and roadside litter changed from being beer can/bottle dominated to being apple-orange juice can dominated.

I don't tell hardly anybody that I regularly pick up paper towels that miss the rubbish bin (and rarely use them [the paper towels] myself).

[oren]

numerobis, thank you for sharing this. My experiencevwith trash is that when the place is clean, people tend more to avoid littering it. So starting the change can get some positive feedback going.

[MrVisible]

I posted this on Reddit back in January:

This is going to sound weird.

I pick up litter.

A few months ago, I got a litter stick from Amazon. I put a few trash bags in my pocket, put on gloves, and went out into my neighborhood and got started.

The neighborhood was frankly trashed; most places in my city are these days. Decline of services and all. I can't do this most days, because my health is pretty poor, so it took me a while to finish my first pass. Now, every few weeks I can clean up my neighborhood in a couple of trips.

I fully realize that this makes me the crazy old guy in a hat and gloves on the side of the road, looking vaguely homeless. I don't care.

There are kids in this neighborhood. There are churches. People walk along these sidewalks every day. And now they don't have to think about what a dump the neighborhood is. They don't have to worry about walking around broken glass. They get to think about other things, hopefully better things.

It's changed my relationship with my neighborhood. I know it better. I know people here now; I've got regular stops on my route where they've invited me to use their trash cans. I've had some fun conversations.

And this might be my ego talking, but I think I see more people in the park lately.

Whether this is all coming to an end or not, there are people all around you. They're no less important than they've ever been. I'd argue they're more important than ever. Some of them need your help.

The only happiness I've found is in service to others.

[etienne]

I have already once thrown back into a car the trash that cames out of it when the car was waiting at the red light, people wheren't too happy. I'm not sure that I would recommend such type of behavior.

[magnamentis]

numerobis, thank you for sharing this. My experiencevwith trash is that when the place is clean, people tend more to avoid littering it. So starting the change can get some positive feedback going.

+1 good and very important point, psychology cannot be underrated, what you said is a general facts and applies even to each private household, clean places are more often kept clean while messy places get messier by the hour

[budmantis]

I have already once thrown back into a car the trash that cames out of it when the car was waiting at the red light, people wheren't too happy. I'm not sure that I would recommend such type of behavior.

A gutsy move Etienne, something just about all of us would like to do at times!

BudM

[logicmanPatrick]

Hi!  My name is Patrick and I'm a litterholic.   

I just stumbled on this thread.  I thought I was alone.  Now i can share my addiction. (sob, sniff.)

[Alexander555]

It's in dutch, but i think the picture show enough. They have to remove 100 tonnes of trash every day from their top beaches. And i was in Bali maybe 7 or 8 years ago. And at that point there was no rubbish at all on the beach. The rapid development of a 4,5 billion population is probably behind it.

https://www.hln.be/wetenschap-planeet/milieu/ongezien-de-toeristische-trekpleister-van-bali-is-nu-een-zee-van-afval-met-dank-aan-de-mens~a5c037f4/

[oren]

Wow. So tertible.