372 - Costing a Planet

So this morning I was lucky enough to do highway clean up along with my 16 member 4-H club, cleaning a 16 km stretch from Ponoka to Crestomere School. Such a joyous adventure and is obviously the reason I'm in 4H.

Highway clean up is such an amazing activity, getting groups and teams together to clean our beautiful province and promote environmentally friendly practices. Surprisingly enough this year we didn't find anything to thrilling: a pair of socks, a blackberry, some animal remains, a few "G" rated magazines, several cigarette packages, licence plates, a live cat, and a few unmentionables. We also got the occasional honk and a scream, "your my hero", from a passing vehicle.

Highway clean up isn't just about improving the look of our highways; but to save our environment. A glass bottle takes about one million years to decompose, an aluminum can takes between 200-500 years. Plastics float in waterways, plugging streams and kill fish. Broken glass can cut the feet of animals, such as foxes, and open bottles and cans can be a temporary home for some small animals; however, once inside many cannot get out causing them to starve or overheat.

During our day we counted 372 Tim Hortens coffee cups! That's unbelievable! I don't understand why people think its alright to toss garbage out the window? Either keep it in your vehicle or find a garbage because eventually some one has to pick it up. An article in Macleans magazine quoted a Sierra Club representative who said, “The Tim Horton's cup is easily the number 1 recognizable item of litter in the country.” One often-cited statistic is that 22% of the litter in our ditches is Tim Horton's, after today I believe it!

People don't look at the big picture, if it wasn't for groups, like 4-H, imagine of all the garbage and wastes that would be in the ditches. This disposable cup, that only has a life span of approximately half an hour, is both a symbol of our clear cut forests and overflowing landfills. Tim Horton's is trying to stop people from littering by printing a small "do not litter" message on the bottom of their cups.


"do not litter"

Tim Horton's needs to take a more practical approach to this problem rather than assuming people will not litter. I believe they need to try and solve this problem by adding a deposit tax for people who are using the non-reusable paper cups, and use tax to offset the cost of a bigger "discount" for people who bring in their recyclable cup. Many grocery stores do this with plastic bags and 7-11 does they same with their plastic cups. People may be shocked and appalled in the beginning, as many were about paying for plastic bags, but eventually they will come to terms with the idea and use re-usable cups, saving the environment. Tim Horton's has done an incredible job in marketing their product which is evident by the lineups at their establishment, however, maybe they could benefit themselves even more if some of their advertising was to promote utilizing reusable cups and putting litter where it belongs.

Many companies need to smarten up with the amount of litter and wastes they produce that ends up in our environment. Times are changing economically and technologically, so why not environmentally? People need to realize what they are doing when they litter and think before they act. We find some weird things in our ditches each year and it amazes me that people don't criticise Tim Horton's more.

Oh and by the way if your missing a orange and white cat I just happen to have found one.

4-H Highway Clean up 2011
Doing our part to Keep Alberta Clean!!!!