A little Trash Talk this week – Dale Peacock

Ahhh…it’s spring when the talk in Huntsville turns to litter.

We were up at the Lions Lookout a few days ago while we waited for the sun to set when I spotted a collection of assorted bags of garbage near the base of the small viewing pavilion. It must have been a fairly recent deposit because the crows had barely begun to tear through them. A few random other items – mostly cups and cigarette butts – were along the fence and in areas where people might stand or sit to contemplate the vista. It’s a shame: the Lions Lookout is listed on Trip Advisor as #3 of the ‘Things to do in Huntsville’.

When I posted the photo on Facebook lots of people weighed in with stories of their own: on Hunters Bay Trail the provided bins are overflowing; garbage is everywhere on the back roads; a sofa had been dumped, which emboldened someone to add a mattress; Greer Road in Port Sydney, which is the messiest it’s been in years; Tim Horton’s cups and McDonald’s bags and cardboard trays were blowin’ in the wind just about everywhere. It seems that people enjoy picking up coffee and fast food, then taking a leisurely drive through the pretty countryside to befoul it with trash as a parting gift.

It makes no sense to me. One assumes that if you walk up to the lookout or amble along a hiking trail or go for a drive in the country that you have some affection for nature and her views. By what logic does someone then casually discard his/her tissue, cigarette butt, coffee cup or food wrapping?

Studies show that people are motivated to keep a nice area nice, especially if people are watching. We live right in town in a well-maintained neighbourhood. Dozens of people walk their dogs and lots of kids use our circle as a short cut every day but I don’t think I’ve ever seen trash or dog poop anywhere on our street in part because it’s nicely kept and in part because of the perception that owners are watching. (We really aren’t.) But where people think they are unseen it can be a different story.

Why do we in Huntsville still throw trash in public spaces and/or allow our own trash to blow out of the blue boxes and spill out of torn up garbage bags on garbage day? And what can we do about it?

We are so lucky to have proper resources such as garbage and recycling pick-up that help us to keep our environment clean. It already exists so why not expand it? Maybe the municipality could provide large colourful stick on/pull off notes that could be easily slapped on a container or even a garbage bag if the garbage collector sees that trash has blown or could blow out of an unsecured container.

After three offences the collector could pass on the address to the municipality to levy a fine if trash isn’t secure. This all takes time and money but surely not any more of either than it takes to gather up unsecured bits of garage at the same locations for years and years.

Outlaw the throwing of papers and phone books into driveways and replace it with newspaper boxes next to mail boxes. Twice a month from Victoria Day to Thanksgiving the municipality could pay someone to clear out anything not picked up and recycle it. Not doing the right thing can cost us. As a realtor friend told me, “Litter affects property values. Nobody wants to live in an area or next to a house that always has trash in the ditch or blown out of a blue box at the end of a driveway.”

Municipal provisions for waste disposal are key to maintaining public spaces. I assume that there are no trash bins at the local lookout because the Town doesn’t want people to use it for household waste or it fears vandalism? I get that but people are dumping their garbage on the ground instead. How is that an improvement? Put containers up there and empty them every day; it also puts extra eyeballs on a bit of a remote spot. If money is in short supply, let’s impose that ‘tourism tax’ and earmark the fund to keep our town tourism friendly. Or maybe it’s time for fast food joints and chain coffee shops to pay a fee/tax to cover the cost of picking up their logoed debris?

The issue of over-flowing bins along the Hunters Bay Trail seems like a no-brainer. If bins are over-full then they need to be emptied more often whether – or maybe especially so – if it’s a weekend or a holiday. The limited disorder on the trail indicates a willingness to do the right thing. It needs to be supported by proper pick up schedules. People are far more likely to contribute more mess to an already messy spot.

Any place like the Lions Lookout or Camp Kitchen needs cameras on property to act as a deterrent and to capture litterers/vandalizers in the act.

Annual roadside clean-ups are a great way to bring the community together and to model civic pride. We should all pitch in but while we shouldn’t just leave it to the other guy, we also can’t become de facto garbage collectors either. I couldn’t remove the six bags of lookout trash because I had nothing to pick it up with and even if I did I would have had to drive to one of the landfills to get rid of it.

Changing a common behavior, like littering, starts with each of us. And we need to do more than just rail against it. We all have to accept responsibility for our actions and work to influence the behaviours of others around us at home, school, work and in the community at large. Sometimes our own efforts aren’t enough and we need to advocate for change by writing or calling our elected local officials.

The idea that “if it isn’t in my neighbourhood, it doesn’t exist” conveys a narrow sense of ownership. We need to see the big picture: not only is our house our home, but our town, our country and our planet is our home too.

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Following a career in the hospitality sector and the acquisition of a law and justice degree in her 50s, Dale embarked on a writing career armed with the fanciful idea that a living could be made as a freelancer. To her own great surprise she was right. The proof lies in hundreds of published works on almost any topic but favourites include travel, humour & satire, feature writing, environment, politics and entrepreneurship. Having re-invented herself half a dozen times, Dale doesn’t rule anything out. Her time is divided equally between Muskoka and Tampa Bay with Jim, her husband of 8 years and partner of 32 years. Two grown ‘kids’ and their spouses receive double doses of love and attention when she’s at home.