Don’t pick that up… it’s someone else’s garbage…. Where does the blame go?

Small acts – why do we feel that everything needs to be a big grandiose act when, it’s the little things that matter and eventually lead to the “big” idea anyways.  People always act like not doing something small such as picking up litter, recycling, or unplugging their electronics won’t matter in the long run… but it does!

For example, I was at a store recently and saw a family of three shopping. While I was browsing the racks and pretending not to overhear their conversation, the little girl (around five years old) picked up a stray piece of garbage lying on the floor (a granola bar wrapper – those hippies need to really start cleaning up after themselves) and walked over to her parents to ask where a garbage was so she could throw the wrapper out. 

The father immediately went up to her, took the wrapper out of her hand like it was a dirty condom and threw it on the ground.  He then said to her, “Don’t pick that up! It’s someone else’s garbage!”  The little girl looked up at him and said “I know, but it’s garbage. I should throw it out.”  I stood there utterly amazed by the selfless, earth conscious little girl who’s father was not allowing her to do the right thing. 

This mindset is the reason for so many problems.  Everyone is so quick to throw the blame around, but no one is willing to accept it. 

We all see the garbage on the streets, beaches, and parks that we have put there (I’m saying we as a collective whole of the human race) and yet we aren’t willing to just pick it up ourselves. 

We have no problem blaming it on officials (we elected them so why can’t we blame them?) and then complain to them that our beaches, parks, and streets are a mess and demand that they (notice not we) do something about it. 

Yet, when they do do something about it, it’s with our tax dollars, and then we complain that our taxes are too high when we could have fixed the problem ourselves instead of involving an elected official!  We are slow to take action ourselves.  

Instead of the mentality of ‘what is recycling this one Sunday paper going to do’ (most people think nothing), think of what it could do.  If everyone recycled all of their newspapers, papers, and magazines, large forests wouldn’t have to be cut down to make more. 

The same goes for the plastic bottles.  If we stopped using them (therefore affecting capitalism through supply and demand), the companies manufacturing them would stop producing them and then possibly seek out another more environmentally friendly product to produce. 

For example, companies have caught onto the current popular movement (I’m not going to say trend, because trends end) of “Going Green.”  Examples of this include water bottle companies using ‘less plastic’ in their bottles.  Okay.  To me, this is a complete gimic to get those people who see it as a trend to buy their products.  Companies are still using plastic! 

Even if you recycle your plastic bottle (still do please), but the entire process still pollutes!  Around 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles ( greenupgrader.com ).  And even though some bottles are recycled, most aren’t.  Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it (greenfeet.com).  So, using a reusable bottle and staying away from plastic in general is the way to go.

Everyone says “not me” or “I’m just one person,” “I can’t do this by myself,” or “What about all those people polluting in China?!” BUT, if everyone did their part, (remember the US emits 20.9% of global emissions for 2007/2008 Human Development Report and we only have 4.6% of the world’s population. 

To put it into perspective the average American emits 20.6 tons of CO₂) the situation we find ourselves in today would not have happened (UNDP 2007/2008 US Human Development Report). 

I’m not going to be the Monday morning quarterback here. Instead I’m prompting people to pick up the garbage they see, recycle instead of throw out, bike or walk instead of drive, and just be mindfully conscious of your actions.  Instead of pushing the blame around, take accountability and act.  Today, I’ve picked up two empty Wendy bags and an empty soda while walking my dog… what will you do?