Why I Clean Up Trash in My Neighborhood and Community
Not for a living or for fun, although it is nice to get outside on a sunny day.
I pick up trash in my neighborhood and community for the sake of preventing it from polluting marine and wildlife ecosystems.
If I can save one piece of trash from entering into a water drain, I have prevented one piece from further polluting the world around me.
Trash immediately affects the ecosystems around us.
At heart, I’m a pure activist. I want the world to be a cleaner and healthier place for my and your children. Cleaning up trash every week serves as a constant reminder to reduce my waste at home and that every little piece matters. While I clean up trash off the streets, I invite ideas to provide solutions for how the trash could be repurposed, either as energy or into products.
Embracing My Inner Activist
We all feel motivated to do the right thing when we find out something awful is happening to the Earth. Paper bags are harmful, let’s switch to plastic. Plastic bags weren’t the answer, so let’s try reusables.
When trash washes up on a beach that should be a place of peace and serenity, we feel angry about the disturbance of the scene because the trash shouldn’t be there.
Even people who seemingly don’t care have a little place in their heart that stings when something happens to the planet.
I admit I’m, what many would consider, overly sensitive concerning the natural world. I’ve cried an ocean of tears for the harmful impacts to the environment — bleached coral reefs, clear-cut mountain ranges, endangered species gone extinct, oil spills, on and on. I want to believe these things were beyond my control, but were they really?
My small actions can lead to big results in my life.
My inner activist wants to do it all — participate in all the beach cleanups, donate millions to conservation efforts, and protect diverse ecosystems from human activity and waste. However, I can only do so much at this time. So, I chose to do what I can where I can with the time I have.
Cleaning up trash in my neighborhood and community every week is sustainable for my lifestyle, meaning it’s an activity I can add to my life to do forever (once a week for one hour). I want a cleaner community, not only for my family but for all families. I refuse to become numb to the trash I see on the sidewalk and scoff that someone should be out here to clean it up.
Far as I’m concerned, I am that someone. I’ve always believed that one person can make a huge difference and that small actions lead to big results. Me going out to simply clean up trash could have a huge impact on anyone that sees me. Or it could not. Either way, what I do matters the most to me.
Solutions While I Clean Up Trash
Many ideas come to us in the shower, out running, or doing house chores. Most of the time, we invite ideas based on questions we ask, information from our newsfeed.
I invite ideas for solutions while out on my walks cleaning up trash because I know that cleaning up the trash and sending it to the landfill isn’t my ultimate solution.
I like to imagine how the trash could be repurposed and distributed.
I’ve seen exquisite examples of how people are repurposing trash.
Some creative examples include a Trashion Show where Nigerian teens put on a fashion show with clothes made of trash.
Another good one is trash art demonstrating activism and creating awareness for the pollution on land and in the oceans.
During my clean ups I ask myself, “What could this be useful for?” and “How could this be turned into energy?”
I don’t have immediate answers come to mind, but at least I continuously get my brain pondering these questions and one day have a solution.
Most of the trash I collect is seemingly useless, but aren’t all raw materials until we find a purpose for them?
I know many countries have turned garbage and sewage into heat energy for homes and are working to become 100 percent zero waste.
I imagine in my lifetime that the U.S. will adopt practices like these. We will eliminate all the trash currently here and humans will integrate with nature to waste nothing and repurpose everything.
At the End of the Day . . .
What would you do if there was no garbage day?
No one coming to pick up your trash and there’s no landfill to take it to.
You might change how you view trash if it had to build up in your backyard or your house.
Guaranteed, you would have already found numerous solutions for the products you buy.
Solutions like buying products that get composted or recycled.
You’d promote systems that sell products with a circular lifecycle, where products you buy go back to the manufacture and they break them down and turn it into the same product (shampoo bottles, deodorant containers, toothpaste tubes).
You’d advocate for packaging and products produced without harmful chemicals and stick to only buying what you need.
In our daily lives, we hold the power of choice to shape our future.
Everything should essentially be recyclable, reusable, composted, or remanufactured. There should be no landfills loaded up with waste.
We live in an era where technology can solve many of the issues societies face today.
I’m honestly no one special and my efforts may never make a difference in the life of any other person.
I’m okay with that because I clean up trash for the community and to serve as a protector for the ecosystems we endanger. And if I can prevent one piece of trash from entering a waterway or the home of an animal, I’m doing my job.
As humans, we must clean up after ourselves and develop practices to reduce our impact. We must vote to get people in government offices who advocate for a change in the systems.
Making a difference begins with one person moving away from the ordinary.
If you’d like to read more about my journey an environmental solutions, check out my blog at The Organic Writer.
