This blog is about reducing plastic waste in the kitchen, but today I’m going to write about plastic litter on my university campus. I was walking back from class today when something caught my eye.
It was a little plastic liquor bottle surrounded by cigarette butts. I kept walking and I noticed pieces of plastic litter all over the place around my residence. So I went and dropped off my stuff in my room and went back outside to take pictures of it. I was surprised by the amount that I saw. There were quite a few plastic bottles and plastic caps.
I even noticed a plastic bottle on a storm drain.
The plastic bottle wasn’t the only piece of plastic I saw on a storm drain.
I noticed a lot of cigarette butts too. Yes, cigarette butts have plastic in them. Like they do with other plastic litter, animals ingest cigarette butts.
Somebody littered a cigarette pack too.
And a lighter.
I saw a lot of plastic wrappers too.
Then there were some random things, like a Lego brick and a plastic cup.
This is just a small amount of the litter I saw in one area on campus. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a couple pieces of litter, but the amount that I saw today made me really sad. I also realized that until today I hadn’t even really thought a lot about the litter problem here at Guelph. I guess I see it so much that I don’t even notice it anymore. But when I saw that one little liquor bottle, I noticed that litter was everywhere. How much litter do you see when you go outside?
Since I have started avoiding plastic more and more, my eyes seem to be drawn to the litter everywhere. I know pick up what I see because I don’t wan’t to see it anymore. I just hope someone else sees me doing it and feels inspired to do the same.
I see a LOT of litter all over the place. My parents live across the street from the beach and anytime we go for walks near there, it’s heartbreaking to see the amount of plastic litter on the sand. I know for a fact that it’ll either be eaten by the birds or get washed out to sea and ingested by animals there and it’s painful to be unable to clean up everythiiiing.
My sweetheart Andrew always picks up the litter he sees, and takes it to the next trash can we find. My Grammy taught me that “people who litter” likely have more germs than “people like us” !! So I am still afraid to touch it, if I can’t go wash my hands right away as she instructed! But I am doing better at just cleaning up. I know we all have the same germs, just not the same education in living together harmoniously! Thanks for writing Mary Kat!