Litter, Litter Everywhere

I went to Funderburg Park Monday morning with my children. In hindsight, we had a great time—the morning was still cool, especially in the shade, and very few people were there.

Those who were walking or playing waved and said hello from a distance. The children enjoyed being somewhere other than at home, and the playground equipment and sidewalks were in good condition, making for an entertaining hour.

However, when we arrived, I was dismayed by the amount of litter. Empty bottles on the pavement. A lighter on the sidewalk. Empty chip and cookie bags scattered about.

Everything was a single-use item of some sort. For instance, an empty plastic Gatorade bottle lay in the asphalt ocean of the parking lot. Do you remember when we used to drink from paper cups poured from a large dispenser at Little League practice and games? Now, I guess, everyone gets their own plastic container.

Of course, the primary issue is why the litter isn’t in the trash cans that are provided at the parks?

I’m proud of our parks, the local ones and also our state and national parks. As you drive into Yellowstone National Park, a giant stone entrance gate says, “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” The United States of America has done a grand and noble thing when it set aside green spaces and majestic views so that everyone, for generations, could enjoy them.

Returning to our visit this week, I feel like the park is an extension of my home. When people litter at the park, I feel like they have littered in my front yard.

I found myself wishing I had some gloves and a bag so I could pick up the trash.

Litter is an issue at both of the large city parks here in Monticello: West View and Funderburg. Both parks are equipped with trash cans. I cannot explain why people fail to place their trash in these conveniently placed receptacles. I mean, you can find trash—even socks—just a few feet from the trash cans. Proximity does not seem to be the issue.

What is?

Perhaps it is the concept of tragedy of the commons.

Tragedy of the commons is the concept that when a resource is available to everyone equally, then the people who use that resource are likely to overuse it—in other words, acting in their own self-interest, they collectively spoil that resource. They do not take care of it as they would their own possession or property.

Take, for example, the communal kitchen. Everyone leaves dishes on the counter expecting someone else to wash them. In the historical example, open range land can lead to overuse of water resources and overgrazing.

A park, where everyone has access, can become a communal garbage heap—a place where someone drops a bottle, another person drops a lighter, a chip bag or any number of discarded items and thinks, “Well, someone else will clean this up.”

Then there is the thought, “Hey, someone else discarded their trash here—I guess I will too.”

Maybe the person drops the items and thinks, “They pay someone to pick this up.”

In the case of a park, the beauty of a park is jeopardized by the very thing that makes it a city park: it is accessible to everyone, and “everyone” feels he or she is not responsible for it.

Though, ultimately, they are. As stewards of the land and as taxpayers, we are responsible.

But if it is not “our” land —land that we own personally—sometimes people can drop trash on the ground and rationalize or not even think about it. “Hey, someone else will pick this up.”

In my house, growing up, my father used to make us pick up. And not just our own stuff. I sometimes had to pick up after my siblings, which felt unfair at the time.

Now I make my children pick up after themselves, their siblings and complete strangers.

“Pick up that trash.”

“I didn’t put it there.”

“Pick it up anyway.” What is missing here is an explanation to my children of why it is important first, to obey, and second, to be good stewards. I’ll be sure to add that in next time.

Now I can’t look at trash —even trash deposited by a stranger—without feeling compelled to pick it up. My father made me feel that I needed to be responsible—not only for myself, but also for my fellow man and community.

Make the world a better place.

Now I need to find some gloves and head to the park to pick up trash.

I hope you will join me.