Four Dead-Simple Reasons to Clean Up Your Community Today
We’re getting right into the bread & butter of RGP for this article — because when it comes down to it, the purpose of RGP is to clean litter.
Every day.
Seven days a week.
But why is that?
What’s so important, actually, about cleaning litter?
There’s a few key reasons to explore.
Litter Attracts Litter
This is one of the many domains in life where the difference between 0 and 1 is far greater than this distance between 1 and 2.
If you’re walking down a beautiful, well maintained street…
And you see nothing on the ground ?
You’re waiting till the next garbage can to throw out your plastic bottle.
But if you see garbage strewn all over the place? You’re far more likely to just toss it anywhere.
We’ve all been there.
It’s just human nature. But we can “hack” human nature by keeping the place clean in the first place.
Nobody wants to be the first to step out of line and throw trash on the ground, but once the example is set, it’s usually too late.
Case in point.
Guarantee this wasn’t dumped there all at once.
Far more likely, one guy dropped a newspaper, and then a meal, and before you know it the whole space behind the bus stop is disgusting.
Still not perfect, but you’d hope the next guy to sit down here has a little more respect.
Litter attracts litter — if we want to take care of our neighborhoods, it’s important that a strong signal is sent.
People don’t litter here.
For The Nature
Obvious reason here, but we need to be cleaning up litter for the nature.
When a (potentially) green space is covered in bottles, cans, and plastics, guess what it can’t truly be?
A green space.
If anything, the only plants that can grow around it are hardy weeds and similar invasives, which is not what we want anyway.
We want the world to be a zone where wildlife can thrive, ideally right alongside humanity.
Allowing us to have that connection with nature in our daily lives.
Underneath where a plastic bag is pasted to the Earth? A flower can grow.
Instead of trying to eat a bottle cap, a crab can try to eat some real food (true story, saw this happen. Unreal.)
The inclusion of litter, which wildlife really has no idea how to handle, is a huge net negative to the world around us.
And species that are less “adaptable” might straight up be driven out of existence by it.
I am a big believer in survival of the fittest, and I have a different mindset than many naturalists in this sense;
If an animal is fit to survive, it will, and if not, good luck.
But that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing when we ruin the habitats of the incredible creatures of all kinds by dumping garbage there.
So let’s move the litter aside.
Give some insects or small creatures a little extra pristine habitat, even if you’re just pulling some old beer bottles out of a bush by the side of the road.
It all counts.
A flower now has room to grow.
Litter is a Waste of Energy
Litter is a literal waste of energy. In a huge way.
Let me explain.
A glass beer bottle on the ground was once full. It had potential energy.
That potential was consumed, and then the vessel discarded.
Now it has potential to be refilled, or reused for a different purpose, but it sits on the ground?
If we have 7 billion humans on Earth, we need to get the most of out of the gifts provided to us, materials included.
There is more life ahead for a glass bottle — which glass, by the way, is a material usable again and again.
That’s what makes it such a shame when you clean an area that hasn’t been touched in years, and find a glass bottle from the early 1900s.
Kind of a cool relic, but also kind of a waste.
Even plastic bottles, aluminum cans, plastic bags, all have more “gas in the tank.”
At the very least, they can be burned and converted to a cheap form of energy.
Instead of their space being taken up by litter, we can actually remove it AND create energy.
Litter sitting on the ground is just an opportunity to create marginal benefit for human kind.
When it comes to the “potential energy” of one mess or street corner, it’s probably pretty low, but when it comes to all the litter on Earth?
That’s an opportunity waiting to be exploited. Somebody needs to do something about it.
Get out there, take a bag of some sort, and make your neighborhood a better place. Maybe you recycle the recyclables and throw the rest in the garbage.
That way, you’ve contributed to society by allowing the recyclables to be reused, and even if the other garbage just gets carted off to a landfill — once that’s full maybe they throw some dirt on top and make a park or something.
That’s been known to happen, and it’s a better use than roadside trash, interfering with the world around it.
It Feels Good
Contributing to society just feels good. That may be the most basic reason to clean litter.
Such a positive sum game.
Such a selfless thing to do.
Yeah, I get it, you personally probably won’t benefit much from cleaning a bag of trash. There’s little marginal benefit to you.
But you get that good feeling of doing a little thing to give back.
You’ve made your community a better place.
You’ve improved (or saved) the life of one local creature.
You’ve provided the materials or energy for somebody out there who will gain from it.
And you’ve done so at little time and cost to yourself.
The backbone of a generative society is its citizens. A world where citizens care about local areas, pitch in, give expecting nothing thereof, and contribute to the positive sum games of life is where the action is.
That’s the future we want for ourselves, and more importantly, our kids and grandkids.
It starts with setting the right example and doing the right thing.
And no joke — when I first started cleaning trash daily, about 2 years ago…I would just do it on a bad day.
I’d be mad, or disheartened, and I’d just say “Whatever, I’m going to go clean some trash.”
Weirdly enough, it feels great. It’s cleansing. The effect has worn off for me, but it’s likely still there for you if you don’t clean trash.
It’s a chance for a mental reset, and the ability to say “Yeah, I’m doing a good thing today.”
Get out there and clean some litter. The benefits are clear. You’ll love it.
Follow on here, on IG @theregrowthproject to watch us clean every day, and subscribe. I love you somehow more than I love cleaning trash.
