Don't Pass it by, Pick It Up

I have a dog and I try to walk her every day, or she tries to walk me. We have issues, but somehow or other we seem to get outside together each morning and sometimes each evening. Maybe it is just me, or maybe I am becoming more sensitive to this, but, I seem to notice a lot of litter, garbage and debris both on the roads, in parks and on private property.

I, like most people I see walking along, with, or without four-legged friend attached, walk right around, through or by litter all the time. After walking with my dog around the same pond everyday for several weeks, I decided to try to pick-up a couple pieces of litter each day to see if it would make any difference in the appearance of that park.

Now, I do not always walk the same route and there are times, this year in particular, where the path around this pond were not passable, but, I have to admit that by picking trash up every day, I have noticed a marked difference. In fact, this has become a bit of an obsession for me and I have unofficially adopted that park as my litter-free zone.

Now, I am not writing this for a pat on the back or for some kind of kudos, what I do want to impress upon anyone reading this is that if I can do this, so can just about anyone else. Besides being able to enjoy a cleaner park and a safer environment for other critters who share that space, you also receive a feeling of accomplishment and pride in your neighborhood.

I have been trying to think of ways to expand this concept to not only my neighborhood, but to my town and beyond to other suburbs in my area. I also ride a bicycle as that is one form of exercise that I can do on regular basis, at least while the weather stays relatively nice and have been dismayed to see how much trash can accumulate on the sides of nature trails over time. Instead of continuing to ride past all this trash, I plan to dedicate a portion of each ride to parking my bike and walking along for 10-15 minutes to pick-up trash along certain stretches of the trail.

I think this is doable as I don't think that I will be challenging Lance anytime soon and the walking and bending over won't hurt my waistline either. My purpose for this blog is to challenge others to do the same. It doesn't take much to carry an extra plastic bag with you and to pick-up a little bit of trash/litter each time you walk your dog, or go out for some exercise. Yes, you will be let down sometimes that the next time you walk that way, there may be more litter replacing what you picked-up, but, if done over time, people get the message and actually start taking care to look for and find the nearest trash can.

I know battling litter is nothing new. I know that there are people out there more eco-conscious than myself. I also know that there will be litter no matter what I do, but, I find myself taking a stand, here, now. Just think about it the next time you are out walking, it might just give your day a lift.