by Nickie Kromminga Hill

This past Wednesday was Earth Day. Last year The Spread Sunshine Gang held a park clean-up event to celebrate. Obviously, this year we were unable to do that. Instead, we challenged you all to do some cleaning up in your own neighborhoods. Like many of you, Paul and I set out, garbage bags and trash-grabber-thingy in tow, and got outside to pick-up trash.

At first, I was very excited! It was a gorgeous day outside! We usually take a walk anyway, why not do some good while we’re at it? It was easy! I quickly became frustrated. WHY IS THERE SO MUCH TRASH OUT HERE? Why are our streets and parking lots and shrubbery filled with ciggy butts and liquor bottles and plastic bags and junk?

I started thinking, “This is not my job. Someone is really lagging behind and not doing their job very well if there is so much trash out here. People are disgusting pigs.”

So then, who’s job is it to pick up the trash?

People shouldn’t be littering to begin with, right? Right. However, by the time we found the trash, there’s no way to know who’s trash it is.

The city streets are the city’s responsibility to clean (and our city has been out cleaning!) but there is A LOT to do to keep a city sparkling clean, and my guess is all the city workers are working their patooties off right now, so let’s give them a break.

The hair salon’s parking lot is the hair salon’s responsibility, but it’s closed right now. Same with the nail salon and the neighborhood gym. The gas station only has one person working right now, and that person needs to stay near the cash register. Although you can head to the parks, they are technically closed and no one is checking in on them right now.

I’m are back to where I started. I either don’t know who’s job it is, or I do know, and that person/those people are unable to fulfill their duties for multiple reasons.

What if every person we saw walking that day (we easily saw 15) had brought a garbage bag with them and picked up as they walked? Fifteen people on a 20-minute walk around their own neighborhoods. What kind of impact might that have had? Small gesture, big impact.

It’s still not my job to pick up other people’s trash, but so what? What other things are technically “not my job” but really aren’t that big of a deal for me to do? I’m not suggesting that we do other people’s careers for them or pick up our co-workers slack, or let ourselves be taken advantage of. I’m talking about the little everyday things that cost us very little to no money and maybe just a bit of our time.

Maybe it’s not my job, but I can help out anyway. You can, too!

Let’s begin.