I have a problem with litter. Just ask my wife. A number of times I’ve confronted someone who has chucked a McDonald’s bag out of the car window, much to my wife’s horror. I’ve confronted litterers on the sidewalk too. Often times I’ve followed the culprit with the garbage in my hand, shouting after him or her. You might say that I’m a zealot when it comes to littering.
Two years ago I saw a grandmother walking with her grandkids in Downtown Buffalo. She stopped and put her empty coffee cup on a windowsill of a building and continued walking. I grabbed the cup and caught up with her and in front of her flock pointed out the error of her ways. It was the first time that someone ever said “Thank you!”. Then she chided herself in front of the kids and said that she had done a terrible thing and would never do it again. Normally I just get ‘the finger’.
I’m also stunned at how many people flick their cigarette butts out of car windows in order to keep their cars clean. Anyone that has ever participated in a neighborhood clean-up can tell you that one of the biggest offenders are the cigarette smokers. The butts not only end up on our streets and lawns, they also end up in our waterways after a rainfall.
Last weekend I took my dog for a walk around Allentown on a 6am stroll before anyone else was around. From the corner of North and Elmwood, down Allen, and back up Wadsworth, I was shocked at the amount of litter that I came upon – especially at the corners with bus stops. What a mess. At the time, I made a vow that I would attend the upcoming Elmwood Village cleanup on Saturday April 20 from 9am to noon (sign up).
Then, today I received an email from Jason Hall, Founder/Director of 1WNY4U who told me about a creative clean-up project that he was helping to get of the ground. “My partners and I from Buffalo State College’s International Center for Studies in Creativity recently established an orginization called 1WNY4U,” Jason told me. “We will be out in Allentown tomorrow (Wednesday) conducting our first annual Allentown Litter Walk from 4:30pm – 6:30 pm. It’s part of the World Creativity and Innovation Week/ Earth Day project. We want to raise awareness about the problems of littering, so instead of throwing the litter out, we’re going to get creative with it. We’re going to be creating collages out of all of the litter that we collect to demonstrate the severity of the problem. The campaign is called ‘Please stop littering! We are running out of glue’.”
Additional info sent by Jason regarding the upcoming Allentown cleanup:
“What if more groups in other neighborhoods, cities, or even other states or countries, made collages?”
Great idea. Challenge accepted. Shortly after we began reaching out, the project went global!
If you would like to join in and form a small group to take up the project, we will email you the flyer/project write-up and suggested materials list. All that we ask is that you:
1. The effort began on Monday April 15 – Anyone looking to join in, it’s as simple as announcing the project to your group, organization, school, etc.
2. Complete your litter collage by Friday April 25. Label it with your group’s name and the title “Please stop littering! We are running out of glue.”
3. Email us pictures of your project from start to finish so that we may raise awareness by posting them on the 1WNY4U and World Creativity and Innovation Week websites (see below).
Join in on the fun. Be socially responsible. Raise awareness. Clean your community. Make a creative collage!
If you decide to take part in the project, please email us at 1WNY4U@gmail or reach us on our website at 1wny4u.wordpress.com. We would love to hear from you.
Update: On Tuesday, April 9 our project was added to the World Creativity and Innovation Week website.
Photo: Kaizen, a 1WNY4U student ambassador, got a head start today on this past Sunday’s Hertel Avenue Litter Walk.