It’s a common question

Why spend so much time cleaning up parks and other public areas

There are many reasons, but also, simply they are dirty and in need of a clean-up

• I use them, and I like them to be in a good state, that’s the main reason I started, as a kid in my scout troop we’d go out on saturday mornings and clean stuff up. my scouting history has a lot to do with the why.

As an adult I started cycling and exploring and finding a lot of trash. so I started cleaning it up.

• I like being active, doing stuff, and this is a good way to “give back”

• There’s a lot to be said about choosing one thing to do. there’s a story about a guy deciding to help this one species of butterflies i think it was and spending twenty years bringing them back from the brink of extinction.

My thing is detrashing. it gets me out of the house and into nature, i get my steps in, I can listen to an audiobook, don’t have to interact with  people , make  my surroundings nicer, and help the enviroment.

Listen, nothing against people(^{this is a lie)}, i go to detrashing events too, but it can be exhausting so having a thing I can do easily by my myself on my bike, that’s great.

It is low effort, low expense,  I can just go for a walk  for a bit and pick up any litter I see or spend an afternoon immersed in wetlands with specialised equipment, it’s very much up to me.

There’s also a psychological bit

• It’s not your mess but it’s your planet

• a lot of people see litter as covered in a “somebody else’s problem” field. but i know it’s really not. sanitation workers aren’t paid to pick up the shit you throw out in a park. no one is but funnily enough, if you do it in your spare time, as a hobby really, it’s remarkable, selfless, etc, but if you’re paid for it (ie, sanitation workers), then it’s shameful.

which makes it kinda funny that I actually give a lot of what I collect to people who sell it for money

• There’s this quote, told to children upon tragedy, “look for the helpers” where there is people wanting to burn the world down, there is also people who want to help, to make it better.  as a adult, I believe it is your responsibility to become said helper, and leave the world better.