Picking Litter

One of the voluntary things I took on when I resigned from full-time work was to be a 'Litter Champion'.  I don't do as much of it as I should, but my New Year resolutions include a determination to be better at making time for it this year - and, though my resolutions don't formally kick in till Monday (see the article below), I thought I'd crack on and do a bit today.

Litter Champions are given training, and kitted out with a High Visibility vest, one of those stick thingies for picking stuff up, some hard-wearing gloves and a supply of brown bags.  Then it's up to us to get out there when we can, on our local patch, and keep the place tidy.  We send in a report every month, so we are monitored.  The brown bags, when full, we either leave by a litter bin or put out with our own household rubbish.

So I took an hour this afternoon to walk down from where we live to the main road into town, filling a large bag on the way and leaving it by the litter bin conveniently placed along the last bit of footpath leading to the road.  And I was surprised at how much I collected!  I walk that way quite often, and it hadn't looked too bad . . . the fact is, though, we walk past an awful lot of stuff without noticing.

I was praised by one passer-by, which is always nice, and greeted by others.  But so much litter!  How was it I hadn't seen all of that (though I did see some) when I walked the same route this morning?  I do believe in, well, maybe not zero tolerance precisely, but certainly this:  that if you are persistent in tackling the small problems within a community - litter, graffiti, petty vandalism - that has a positive impact that is much wider.  Of course, getting people to accept a degree of responsibility for their own community and, I suppose, a sense of ownership, has always got to be good, and that's a lot of what this scheme is about.

Perhaps it is also true, and I hope it may be, that the more ready we are to spot and sort out small issues, the less likely we'll be to walk past the big ones with our eyes averted.  Most people, I feel sure, do not drop litter except in very thoughtless moments.  The minority who do are spoiling things for the rest of us - but the simple truth is that if there's already litter there, unswept and uncleared, it's easy to add to it.  Get it cleared, and for a while at least it's likely to stay clear.  Deal with things promptly and they are less likely, short term, to recur.  The litter champion project is one way in which we can stay on top of things.

My friend and fellow Rotarian Francesca litter picking last May.