When I first picking up trash oceanside of the condo, I thought I’d be done soon, thinking that the litter came from “elsewhere” not my fellow residents. I thought that if I’d pick up all the trash in an area that the next morning that the area would still be clean. Honestly, that was my expectation. I suppose there was a little bit of my insanity showing when I kept thinking that things would change, “if only” I could pick up enough of the trash, people would stop littering.
I had done some research and one report I read indicated that if an area is litter-free, people are less likely to litter. Arlo Guthrie talked about being arrested for litterin’ in “Alice’s Restaurant” and how that ultimately affected his draft status, answering the question “have you ever been arrested?” As his story goes, he thought it made better sense to simply add to the pile at the bottom of the ravine, rather than bring all the trash up.
The positive thinking part of myself really thought if the beachfront area was litter free, it would stay that way. Certainly I could not believe, or did not want to believe that there were many litterbugs living in or visiting our building. As much as I wanted to believe that once an area was cleaned up it would stay that way. Truth be told… it’s more of a mindset for the people that inhabit the space that determines the viability of maintaining a litter-free zone.
What can be expressed to alter the way we live and show our respect to mother earth?
Contemplate litter-free zones.
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