I love being outdoors, whether it’s walking my dog or walking around with my friends it’s always refreshing. Lately I’ve been seeing an excess amount of litter just laying around the streets and parks. It bothers me specifically because I care about the environment. So for my project I want to do an action that will help with this problem I’ve been seeing. Ive always wanted to do something about this issue, and this class is the perfect opportunity to do so. I will essentially be picking a day for me, my family, and my friends to be picking up litter around the community. The only issue with this is that I’ve seen a huge amount of people doing this exact action project. There can never be enough people trying to help, but it did get me thinking on how I could possibly differentiate my action from others.
My mom gave me a great idea to expand the trash pick up, to reach out to others who live further away and see if they would participate. Since then I’ve reached out to people in Surrey, Vancouver, and Burnaby. After I confirmed some people I started thinking about expanding the project to all of Canada, since that I’ve reached out to people in Alberta, Quebec, Ontario, and NewFoundLand. Also we randomly have some family in Croatia participating. I think this is a way for people to connect through caring for the environment. After I get the confirmation about who will be participating I will elaborate on what they have to specifically do. But so far my idea is that they will fill up a bag with the litter and email me the photo. This is a summery of my ideas, but in my head they are more in depth!
I actually found this Ted Talk to be quite insightful, usually I find them very boring! I completely agree with her talking points, sometimes trying to help someone only hurts them. For example, one time my friend asked me for help with a project she thought was difficult. I was interested in the topic so I found it easier than she did. She only asked for a small amount of help but I ended up doing most of it. The teacher ended up giving her a bad mark because the writing did not sound like her. This is proving her point that too much help can cause the opposite of what was intended. I think an issue that I could run into with this project is not getting responses from people. People being uncooperative or just not wanting to help at all.
This action is not sustainable on a scale this big. I am not sure if people would do this for a continuous period of time. Me and my mom used to go to the elementary school by our house and pick up litter. That was more long term because it was just me and her. This is more of a one time group project. I will definitely look into making a club or group to make this project sustainable and long term.
The people that I have reached out to are getting opportunities, I will try to find a way to reach more people so that they get this opportunity too. I know that I am making a positive impact because even picking up piece of trash helps. For this project I am also working on bringing people together. The people I have contacted all live very far apart and live very separate lives. But once the project is over I will be sending an email thanking everyone, I will include pictures of the trash picked up. I hope this will make everyone feel connected and joyful! 😛
