Creating A Cleaner World Around Us

Last year I started taking regular morning walks. After about two weeks I began to see lots and lots of trash. It wasn't anything like someone tipping over a trashcan and spilling the contents all over the street. This was different.

I began to notice the little pieces of trash. A gum wrapper here, a cigarette butt there. An empty beer can or abandoned plastic bag or even a random pair of pants in the bushes. I have always taken pride in the general cleanliness of my community but when you slow down and take a closer look along the side of the road, in the bushes or by that fence nobody wants to pass by, you see something more alarming.

I realized that all of those little pieces of trash, if put together, would likely make a pretty big pile of trash; trash that we barely even recognize on the side of the road as we zoom on by in our cars and trucks or bikes or whatever is we do to get to where we need to go.

So I just started bringing old grocery store bags on my walks (and a pair of gloves.) I made a resolution to try and keep within a two mile radius of my house and fill no more than two bags per walk.

And as you can see, the results are rather stunning (to me at least.) The first picture was from my first experience doing this a few months ago. It was messy and gross and the intensity of my walk decreased. But I can't explain the feeling of knowing that after a simple walk THIS much trash was lying all around me, right where I live. I hope to keep continuing on this mission of just doing simple small stuff to make my little area a little bit cleaner.

I find it disheartening that as a global society we struggle to find better ways to address the impact we humans play on Earth. The whole debate regarding the environment seems caught up in a game of phrases. The debate has gone from "global warming" to now what is called "climate change."

I am not a scientist who is trained in assessing the scientific impacts of humans on Earth. I have no desire whatsoever to run for office or lead a big corporation in cleaning up their mess.

But what I do know is that pollution sucks, for everybody. No matter what happens to the atmosphere and temperatures, there is no doubting a bunch of trash is sitting in the ocean. There is no doubting the reality we all see of people just throwing their trash on the ground with no regard for the people or other creatures around them. There is absolutely no doubt that THIS trash sits on the streets of MY community.

So I will skip the whole "climate change" debate and have simply come to the conclusion that pollution in general creates unhealthy living conditions, and my goal is to do what I can to pick up the trash in my neighborhood as often as I can, without judgement towards anyone. I am not necessarily concerned with others joining me. This is what I do.

My primary objective is to encourage others out there to explore what it is you can or want to do to make the world around YOU a better place. I believe that if we allow ourselves the space to think about and explore what we can do, we WILL do amazing things and indeed will make this world a cleaner, healthier and more loving place to call home.

Again this first picture was from a few months ago, but the last three were from this week when I decided to step up my game and do more. All in Love.

Thanks for checking out this post. An upvote and comment are always fun and helpful, but my primary request is for YOU to explore for yourself what you can do to make your world a better place.

Love.