Driving home from work this afternoon, I saw a landscaping crew blowing trash into the street.
And not just grass clippings or weeds or small cigarette butts… I’m talking trash that looked like it was dumped from a trash can—trash. Things like McDonalds paper bags, Super Size to-go cups, plastic food wrappers, empty chip bags, AND grass clippings/ weeds/ cigarette butts…
I can almost see the train of thought in my head: “Cleaning up trash isn’t our job.”
“…We mow, we weed whack, we hedge, we blow, and we go.”
And they’re not wrong.
Cleaning up other people’s trash shouldn’t be anyone’s job except the person who did the trashing—and the greatly appreciated workers who are hired to transport it from our cans/bins to the appropriate community location.
And yet, in that moment… I couldn’t help but feel like they were doing something wrong.
If you’re going to go through the effort of blowing it around and into the street, why not just bend over, pick it up, and put it in a garbage bag that’s preemptively set aside? Why not go the extra mile (or extra few steps) and properly deal with the property you were hired to care for? Why not be the change rather than perpetuate the problem?
I say this not from a place of judgement, but from a place of care. I say this not from a place of being perfect at doing this myself, but from a place of inquisition. I say this not to call people out, but to inspire others—myself included—to step it up.
I say this because I think, it’s what more of us need to hear.