Who doesn’t remember the good times at the Oliver theatre? The Goughs would post the coming attractions which set up an expectation of the excitement of going to watch the movie. Once in the theatre and settled in a seat, the smell of popcorn would set the stomach juices a flowing until you just had to go get a bag of your own, and of course buy some licorice and a pop. After each item was finished, where did the container go? On the floor of course! Where else would it go? The Goughs never did scold us for using the floor as our own personal garbage can.As I grew into an adult, I didn’t really have a concern about where my garbage went until I did some work as a custodian, that was when I had to pick chewing gum and cigarette butts out of the urinals. And that was when I stopped putting those items into that receptacle. This was my first realization that it was inconvenient and foolish to put those items in that place. If those items were not removed as soon as discovered, then their numbers would grow.
As I progressed through my adult years I did a fair amount of cleaning in commercial buildings. I stripped and waxed many floors and I picked up a lot of garbage.
It wasn’t until I got into my sixties that I began to take seriously cleaning up my own candy wrappers and drink containers. The motivation was to be able to take action and see garbage go from my hand and into the garbage can where it belongs, not where I usually just uncaringly dropped it because I no longer had a use for it.
Another motivation was created when I began to work for the City of Edmonton and I decided that I wasn’t going to just do a job, but I was going to help build a city! That entailed doing everything I could all the time, whether at work or not. The thing that was always within my control was to pick up discarded paper and plastic from the streets and sidewalks.
The last City building I worked at had a parking lot for 200 vehicles. The occupants of those vehicles create a lot of discarded garbage. The second last City building I worked at was just across that same parking lot so I would go to and fro. While crossing the lot, I picked up all the garbage I came across and put it where it belonged, it was that easy!
I admit, I have taken this garbage issue to the extreme. When I go on a plane, I make sure I leave no garbage behind, nothing in the seat pocket, nothing on the floor. When I go to a hockey game I sometimes eat messy stuff in the stands but I make sure to put my garbage where it belongs and that is not under my chair on the floor.
It is all part of building the community. I know, there are some who feel because the garbage can is two or ten steps away, it is their right to drop it on the ground where they stand. It looks to me like those are the people who feel the world owes them something.