Along my path I’ve often come across people who question why I’m doing what I do – or they may admire the task of going plastic free and picking up plastic from the beach, but they admire it from a slight distance.
The common phrases are:
“Oh good on you – I’ve considered doing that but then I thought what difference can I realistically make? The problem is so huge”.
“Oh I take care of my own rubbish, you should really target the litterbugs – if they know you’ll pick it up they’ll just keep littering”.
“This is the responsibility of the businesses. Why should you clean up their mess?”
And my personal favourite:
“Why do you bother doing that? More rubbish will just wash up tomorrow”.
Now, all of those queries can be answered individually, quite easily – because my personal experience has shown me that one person’s journey CAN make a big difference, litterbugs DON’T suddenly get a conscience just because you stop picking up their litter, beach clean ups DO make a difference and we DO have a collective responsibility to address waste.
There is one fact that, for me, overrides all of these, though – and it’s one that’s often overlooked:
Picking up litter is, actually, much more about you than anything around you.
It’s not about whether you think you are, solely, fixing the problem. It’s not about whether the rubbish is yours or not. It’s not about whether you will influence wide change. It’s not about the change you make ‘out there’ at all.
It’s about the change you are making inside of yourself, and continue to make inside of yourself every time you take responsibility for our collective impact upon this planet. It’s understanding that we are in an abusive relationship with Mother Earth, and we are the abuser – and regardless of what the law says, we can, and must, do better. Not just for her, for ourselves.
Picking up rubbish is an act of self-redemption.
I had roughly 20 years of irresponsible consumption before I kicked my consciousness into high gear. That’s 20 years of investing in polluters by purchasing their goods, 20 years of creating unsustainable levels of waste, 20 years of treading heavily on Papatūānuku.
I have a lot to atone for.
But every time I make a better purchase, every time I repurpose, or reuse, or recycle… and especially every time I pick up a piece of litter, I feel like I’m getting a little bit closer to where I need to be.
Beautifully written, it really is a reflection of ourselves & how we give back & atone individually. Loved reading this, thanks for sharing & for doing what you do. Blessings x
Thankyou Sarah. Just spent some time going through your blog it’s lovely! Thankyou for all you do for our mother as well. xx
Splendid, wise post, Tina. It is so important for us to do what we are able. I believe it is a spiritual task. We cannot undo much that is done; we can do our best to atone. Thank you for this fine post.
There are a hundred reasons why what you do is so right – one of which is that it makes other people think and ask questions. I am fortunate that I had a mother who always picked up rubbish as we walked on the beach, and was a great inspiration in eco matters – but I still had years of not giving it all enough thought and am doing my best now to make up for that.
Cousin thank you for being such an inspiration. Moved from unconscious to being conscious and sharing these ideas with my mokopuna x
Much love taku whanaunga – that makes my heart smile to read. Xxx
Wonderfully said! When we pick up litter it makes the people around us think about why we are picking up rubbish that is not ours and they are just walking past. We are setting an example, hopefully we can get more litter picker-uppers in NZ and less litters!
Hi Tina,
THIS post will help me change my mindset about picking up rubbish. I walk the dog daily, and when I remember, I take a plastic bag (the hubby have never remembered to take a cloth bag to the shops in his life) and do some gathering. I start off feeling “Oooh look how great I am caring for the world”, but it soon turns to “arghh dirty pigs can’t you put your McDonalds rubbish in the bin ffs” and I get angry & it takes some of the joy away from my walking. But atonement, self-redemption, yes. I can use this.
Anyway thanks for your expertise, thought provoking words & ideas I can use. Sam told me about your blog, back in the olden days we went to school with Morgan 🙂
Thankyou so much for that! Always awesome to know that some ripple has been made 🙂 Morgan is well by the way, we live in the same town, he has three beautiful children and a gorgeous wife. He surfs, fishes, rolls out an amazing bbq and is, in general, really enjoying life. xx