Paying people to do our dirty work for us...

I had a few errands to run to day, and of course, because of the flurry of activity on the weekend, my brain is totally and utterly immersed in all things garbage and litter...

As I was driving, I saw no less than four different city workers in different parts of the city, pick up trash!

They had their little reflective vests on.  They had their little litter grippers (wasn't sure what to call them, so googled "litter grippers" and there they were!!

They had their plastic garbage bags and they were picking up litter on various streets.  I'm sure they are out all the time... I just never noticed them before!

My first reaction was "YAY!  Someone is cleaning up the streets!"

My second reaction was "WTF??? We're PAYING people to pick up our trash!! That's coming out of our taxes!"

My third reaction was "How decadent! What a luxury to be able to PAY people to clean up after us."

And how sad that we need it!  But thankfully we DO have people picking up our trash, because if we didn't, things would be even worse off than than they are already.

I have had the luxury of being able to travel and see a lot of different places in the world.  Many of them not as fortunate as we are.  I clearly remember a recent trip to Tangier, Morocco.  One of my favorite trips and coming from a beach city here in BC, I was quite looking forward to spending time at the beach in Morocco.

Well, I can assure you that Tangier DID NOT have people going around and picking up after them.  Garbage was literally floating in the waves and the beach was horribly littered.  I was leery to even take my shoes off and we did NOT go in the water.  We were too scared to!

 When I was there, I wasn't the trash hound I am now. I was disgusted, but didn't honestly pay a lot of attention.

Now that I see it in my own neighborhood and "backyard", I am bothered by it.  I am afraid where it will lead us.

We have the benefit of being able to PAY people to clean up after us...




Look at this image... Taken in South Surrey just a few days ago.
And these images:

China Garbage:
Philippines Garbage:
India Garbage:

It all starts like the image above...  And it's in our own backyard....  We obviously have MORE garbage and litter than we can afford to pay people to clean up already now!! ... What happens when it just keeps getting worse???