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What's new in Litterland

12/1/2012

1 Comment

 
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.

1 Comment
Bernard Paquette link
12/15/2012 04:41:58 am

Found your website on a tweeter notice. Happy to meet another Litter Picker / anti litter advocate. Agree that seeing the problem in specific context is part of creating specific solutions. One of my examples is for candidates to replace political signs (after elections) with planted flower bulbs- that way at least one of their promises will be fulfilled in the spring.
Cheers
Bernie Paquette
Vermont, US
http://litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.com/

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    Author

    Creative communications consultant Sheila White is founder of the Litter Prevention Program, and prior worked as a communications ace and PR strategist for some of Ontario's top political names.

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