From One to Many: How One Person’s Simple Act of Litter Cleanup Transformed Their Perspective and Neighborhood
At some point in my life I realized that I could be angry about litter on the sidewalk and walk by it (sometimes the same piece of litter) for the next fifteen years, or I could pick it up. And I decided to pick it up.
Nearly any time I take a walk now I pick up the litter around me. I usually have gardening gloves and a plastic CVS bag with me and I throw the filled bag out at the public trash cans.
You might expect me to say if everyone did this, we wouldn’t have a problem. But it doesn’t need everyone. It just needs one. If you walk in any area regularly, try doing it. If you do it for a few days you will begin to notice a difference. You’ll walk by and you won’t be seeing litter, you will be seeing the beautiful natural world. If you do it over a few months the area can look like you’re in the wild, far from McDonalds and 7- Eleven even if they are just a few blocks away.
Litter breeds more litter. If you even have a single piece of litter today, you will have two or more tomorrow.
If there’s too much litter, just do it section by section. Sometimes now if I see a particularly dirty area I will come back with my car and my purple Portland trash bags, pick up the trash, bring it home and throw it out there. I tend to do this on Tuesdays since Wednesday morning is trash pickup. If you see dangerous items, like needles, you can use the app See Click Fix to notify your city or town for pickup.
I believe keeping an area litter free keeps it safer for three reasons:
- Criminals feel that crimes would be noticed and reported to the police so they don’t commit them. (like the Broken Window Theory )
- People are happier, feel safer, and don’t get into arguments as much.
- Litter is used as a visual shortcut to show dangerous areas in movies and tv. After absorbing so many hours of this programming people (especially teens) see litter and it is like a commercial for bad behavior. They are more likely to think of stealing, vandalism and other bad behaviors.
I know I’m not the only one who picks up litter on their walks. I’ve seen other people do it too. David Sedaris, the comic writer, also does it and has written about it.
My teenaged son started picking up litter during Covid because he had so many Community Service hours demanded by his high school (Mystic Valley Regional Charter School) and there were limited volunteer opportunities. He sometimes would get discouraged since he would do it near where his father lived in Boston and the areas would get dirty quickly.
Trying to boost his mood I told him my theories of cleaning up areas and stressed that he was making his community safer. I always picked up the litter around the schools where I worked as a teacher, but my own pep talks made me think about how the kids were walking to school on sidewalks with empty beer cans and other debris. At the time I was working for the Boston Public Schools and I started picking up the litter on the way to and from the MBTA (subway). Both kids and parents need to feel safe when the children go to school.
Sometimes people will get upset with me for doing this. I have been accused of dumping household trash, accused of being a homeless person, or of “casing” the neighborhood to break into homes. It’s kind of funny because I’ve gotten disparaged more for doing something everyone agrees is good, picking up litter, than for things there’s more controversy about like political or human rights activism.
Now that I live in Portland, Maine I continue to pick up litter. I live in such a beautiful area close to the ocean, that it is inspiring. I cannot stress this more strongly, it doesn’t take everyone. It just takes you.
