1 Come walk with us

We see a lot of different things when we go for walks. Walking trails that are completely covered in old trees and vines, neighbourhood streets filled with kids riding bikes and playing basketball and new homes being built. We also see a lot of litter. Some of it is from the construction site, some of it is pure laziness...actually the rest of it is probably laziness. 

On our walk tonight we found a variety of litter which we picked up to dispose of properly. It is kind of gross when you think about it...picking up someone else's trash but who else is going to do it? So we walked and stopped and picked up random pieces of litter that were scattered amongst the leaves, branches and grass. The plastic bags scared me the most because I didn't want to pick one up and find a hand or something. We laughed at the ridiculousness of what we saw (who drops cabbage on the side of a trail and who on earth eats that many brined mushrooms???). 

 

We also found a gasoline tank from a car and a tire. The tire didn't surprise me but a gas tank??

The most common litter items include: cigarette butts, small pieces of paper (like receipts), candy bar wrappers, chip bags, coffee cups, fast food containers, glass bottles. We found the following:

 

1 pop can, 1 juice box, 2 plastic drink cups, 4 plastic coffee/pop lids, 7 coffee/pop cups, 2 large plastic disc type things, 1 pop bottle or water bottle lid, 1 pop bottle, 14 water bottles, 1 bag of soil, 6 plastic bags, 5 ziplock bags, 1 cigarette pack, 1 gum pack, 4 water labels, 4 candy bar wrappers, 3 pieces of styrofoam, 1 wine bottle, 1 beer bottle, 1 whiskey bottle.

There was so much that was either too big for us to grab and there was just way more than our bag could contain. About 5 minutes into the walk when my bag was already overflowing I had to change my game plan and focus only on the items that I knew I could recycle, compost or put into the trash. Anything that I though would compost I tried to leave behind.

While it feels good to pick up litter and make our trail and streets looks better it does not get to the root of the problem.  Why are people littering in the first place? They probably think it doesn't really matter, they are too lazy to carry it back home or that someone will come along and pick it up for them (shit I guess I proved them right on that one didn't I?). Litter isn't just trash sitting innocently on the side of the road. It can negatively impact our wildlife and our health. The majority of cities have litter laws and fines but when was the last time you heard of someone getting a ticket for littering? Yah exactly. 

This post was part of the Change the World Wednesday Challenge. Check it out to see the other bloggers results and what is on tap for next week.

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