Every year I pick a rhyming motto for the year.  It was ‘going to be great in ’08, ‘shine in ’09’ and ‘outdo myself in twenty-twelve’.  Here we are at year-end and I’ve settled on my likely slogan for 2013.  “Keeping it clean in 2013.”

In this vein, I was pleased to receive on the day before Christmas a letter from Martin Von Wuthenau, corporate relations manager, on behalf of the CEO of Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc.  I wrote to Louis Camilleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of parent company Philip Morris International, on November 8.   This is the first response from the major tobacco concerns I attempted to contact.  One noteworthy aspect of this letter is that the PMI head office in Switzerland was quicker to reply than our homegrown entity, Imperial Tobacco, in Montreal, Canada.

I learned from Rothman’s that three countries carry a disposal message on their cigarette packaging: Mexico, Sweden and Italy. This is a measure we’ve advocated (see Prevent Litter/ Tobacco). I am glad to know the door is open now for other countries to follow suit. They shouldn’t squander the opportunity to provide smokers with disposal instructions.  Every reminder helps. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have a diseased lung decorating cigarette boxes. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome of my meeting with RB&H in the New Year.  

One of the concepts we’re promoting for 2013 is the Litter Not Pledge. Happy New Year.
Copy, paste, print and sign the pledge.  There! Your New Year’s resolution is done. Now ask others to sign it.  Don’t worry about those who won’t.  They are the ones to whom we can direct more information and education first.  The simple act of signing the Litter Not Pledge reinforces an important message.

Litter Not Pledge

I  _____________________ pledge not to litter.  It’s that simple.  I will take ownership of waste materials that end up in my hands.  I will make sure that every item comes to the end of its life by placing it in the proper bin, receptacle, container or ashtray, or in a litterbag that I take home with me to dispose of correctly.

I pledge to not let litter linger on my property, lawn or boulevard.  I will remove litter from my private property right away because I understand that leaving it there will attract more littering.

I pledge to talk about litter and littering in conversations so that people know that I’m for a clean and green city and that I expect them to take this same simple pledge for making our community the greenest it can be and Number One in litter prevention.


Signature:  __________________________________
Date:          __________________________________

I don’t know Nadia Arsenault, but I like the way she thinks.  

Nadia authored a letter that appeared this week in the widely read Hamilton Spectator newspaper.  In it she directed her comments to “the follically (sic) challenged guy driving the black Focus last Wednesday afternoon in the east end.”

“Just as I pulled up behind you in the turning lane to go south … I watched you open your car door and try to be discreet as you wantonly dropped your Timmies cup onto the street,” Nadia wrote.  (For those in other parts of the world, ‘Timmies’ is slang for Tim Hortons, a giant Canadian chain of coffee shops and drive-thrus.)

“I watched as what was left of the coffee spilled onto the pavement.  I also saw you look in your side mirror and noticed me watching you.”

This is where I jump in to note that an effective, instant way to communicate with littering motorists is very much needed.  What if we could ‘tag’ them with GPS positioning and licence plate ID and have their littering policed?  Imagine a revolving red arrow on the top of one’s car honking loudly, flashing red lights and pointing in the direction of the litterer when activated.  I know Nadia would relish such a device.

On Twitter there’s @TheLitterati, a site that collects your photos and locations of litter and littering.  They post and analyze them.   Out of Vermont comes another great site, http://litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.ca/. It too enables the non-littering majority to exercise its considerable muscle.

What about tweeting licence numbers of cars from which litter emanates?  Would a system like that cause Nadia’s man with few follicles to think twice?

“I hope you can read lips because I was pretty disturbed that a grown man, who should know better, chose to do such a disgusting thing,” Nadia wrote. “You should be ashamed of yourself. What a disgusting, self-serving habit. People, please don’t litter. Take it home and throw it in the trash.”

What I like about Nadia without even knowing her is that she spoke up.  She wrote to that local paper, communicated to its editor.  She didn’t shy away from talking about littering. 

I think the bald guy should order small coffees only and bring his own reusable mug from now on.  “Timmies” gives a 10-cent discount if you bring your own cup. 

The City of Hamilton recently developed a wonderful clean and green objective that relies on people like Baldy to change and people like Nadia to stick with it. 

Words have power.  Good for Nadia for recognizing this and using hers.

I use this space a sounding board and a vent and you can too. 

I’ve been waiting for that tweet-text that says, “Sheila, shut up already with your litter shlog. What’s left to say?” 

Plenty.  Really. 

Every taxi should be outfitted with a litterbag.

Recently I witnessed a taxicab leaving a medical clinic.  At the exit gate the driver rolled down his window, waved his receipt under the parking machine sensor and as the gate lifted he dropped his chit on the ground.  No, that’s not a typo.  I meant ‘chit’.   It was a thoughtless toss before his arm went back into the car and onto the steering wheel and he drove away.

Now it was my turn to use the parking machine.  I look down to the ground while I wait for the machine to process my receipt.  Scores if not hundreds of the white paper vouchers lie scattered on the pavement.  Here was evidence of many other drivers littering, not just this cabbie from Beck Taxi with the owner’s plate on his car.  (Note to self: boycott Beck).  I wrestle with reporting him to the company because I have noted his plate number.

The machine regurgitated my receipt.  I removed it and tucked it safely inside the car.  It didn’t take up a lot of space.  Certainly the taxi driver would have room in his car to accommodate a 1 ½ x 5 inch piece of waste paper, so space wasn’t the issue.  All he needed to do was keep it with him and recycle it at home or at work.  All businesses like Beck should by now be retrofitted with appropriate bins.  Employees and owners should be encouraged to do the right thing and not litter, because it reflects poorly on the company if they don’t.

There’s a myth out there, spun by the people who litter, that their littering creates a job for somebody.  More likely is that their littering has ruined someone’s job, and day, the person who just finished sweeping that sidewalk, cleaning that park, storefront, beach, road or floor where your litter happened to land.  They were proud of their hard work until a litterer loped along.

That’s a great rationale though.  Can’t you see the Prime Minister at election time criss-crossing the country dishing out garbage by the shovel load to every town, city and hamlet from the back of a flatbed, touting it as a Job Creation Plan?  If littering really was a good job creator, don’t you think someone in the big leagues would have exploited that concept by now?  

Anyone who sees littering as doing someone a favour or creating a job isn’t thinking clearly.  You want to do someone a favour?  Try not littering.

Litter doesn’t create employment.  Litter creates a mess.  On this day, I saw how easily that happens.