This morning, Tetsu and I went out on the main road and picked up litter along the road. This is our regular Saturday or Sunday morning activity.
Long ago I read about the Broken Window Syndrome. This is a theory that if a building has a broken window in it, soon the whole building and then the neighborhood will fall to pieces. If one window is broken, it is so much easier for the next vandal to break the next window and since there are two broken, the third vandal figures no one notices or cares anyway and so it goes. The building becomes broken down, somebody leaves an old sofa in front of it, next a paint can, some tires and the neighborhood goes to pot.
In my own home I can recognize that I become blind to the junk that piles up. If a juice glass is set on the coffee table, it is not long before there will be a pair of pliers, some nail clippers, a can of bug spray etc. Worse is realizing that the toolbox has been sitting by the chair for over two months and I didn't notice. Broken Window Syndrome.
The roads in my town are terribly littered. I think as the years go by the problem is becoming worse. I can't figure this out. The area we live in is gorgeous! The scenery, the peacefulness. But look down or peer into the forest and there are cans and plastic bottles and cigarette butts and plastic bags. Why don't the people care? Don't they see the litter? I know that the schools have tried addressing this problem and teaching morals to the school kids. They have a bi-annual garbage clean-up and the kids are taken to surrounding areas to pick up litter on the roads to the school. Parents get involved too, but in a few days it starts to accumulate again and sadly I've seen the very kids who were cleaning the week before, drop wrappers and cans on the street as they play.
Nearly ten years ago I started on a private campaign to clean up the country road and slowly, one bag a week it looks pretty good. Unfortunately there has never been a week when there was no garbage. Once Choco joined our family it was too hard to walk the dog and pick up garbage alone and so Tetsu took over the pick-up project. We consider it sort of a game. Who is the person who likes Cool Mint Chewing Gum so much? Wonder if the person who nightly throws out a beer can is alright, there aren't any beer cans this week. Someone must have caught a cold or else has hay fever, there are an awful lot of tissues today.
Another reason for picking-up litter is because I think seeing all this (or not seeing all this) is contaminating the minds and hearts of the people who go by. This is my own private Broken Window Syndrome theory and I'm not sure I can explain. The children who blindly walk by all the garbage on their way to school are getting the message that the person who
threw it out didn't care about them (the people who have to see it) and anyone else who closes their eyes and walks past (it's not my garbage. I didn't put it there!) is giving the message they they don't care either. If you live in a formal setting you will be formal. If you live in a casual setting you will become casual. If you live in a junkyard you will become junk. Anyway, I'm trying to change my neighborhood even if no one realizes it. Who knows but a hundred years from now this little part of the world with have happier hearts because some lady picked up a broken bottle...I need to go clean my sewing room now...
5 comments:
What a great post. Well done for doing your bit. I know it is heartbreaking when the rubbish re-appears straight away, but you know that there is less than would have been if you had not picked the fist lot up. If only everyone did their little bit!
A journey begins with a single step - you are doing all you can as two people. The magic starts when you can get someone to join you regularly. I don't know about the rest of America but I love what has happened here in the northwest. Little by little over the years the roads are being cleaned up. We have sections of the highways that are "adopted" by families, schools, or organizations who regularly pick up the garbage in their section. Minor offenders are made by the court system to spend so many hours doing community service, which often includes picking up garbage along the road. We have huge weekends for beach clean up day, etc. when hundreds and hundreds turn out to clean the garbage off the beaches. This started somewhere by someone quite a few years ago now - maybe what you are doing will grow as it has here. I hope so!
Great job. While we have had cattle out on the roads droving we have been picking up the rubbish.Some people just don't care. We have had 2 big piles. The frustrating thing is to see new rubbish thrown out where we have already picked it up. Keep up the good work.
Tanya, Because of people LIKE you - AND YOU - the world is a better place. It's a shame that the good deed that you do is necessary, that the guilty persons who so thoughtlessly and carelessly dispose of their personal trash don't take responsibility for themselves. I am glad that you shared this so that all of us can be more aware. I don't know if this is a universal problem but it happens here in the USA all the time.
What an awesome point. I was going to stop commenting on each post, but wow. I know about and fully subscribe to the broken window theory and do my part to clean up my neighborhood. I am a part of the neighborhood association. I really liked your comment about the fact that it shows that you don't care about the person walking by who has to see it. I hadn't thought of it that way.
I have neighbors who regularly go through my yard and throw their trash as a calling card to let me know they were there.
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