As much as most of us look forward to spring, one of the inevitable disappointments is seeing what is left behind after the snow and ice melt.
Pristine snow has covered the unfortunate behaviour of individuals who have no respect for their own behaviour nor any respect for the property of others.
In spring, summer and fall, their actions are evident, and they can be chastised while the act of littering takes place. In the winter, in a snowstorm or with bone-chilling temperatures, it is less pleasurable to be out shouting at someone who tosses hamburger wrappers and soft drink cans onto streets, boulevards and private property.
And so the snow is gone, but the melt has left behind an ugly variety of products that just as easily could have been deposited in garbage and recycling receptacles.
I can condone peanut shells in the tulip patch because the squirrels do not understand the human’s derision of litter. In many cases, those rodents, in their spirit of sharing, sometimes leave intact peanuts when they run off with the tulip bulbs that in season, turned out some beautiful red and yellow blossoms.
However, most people will join me in admonishing humans who can’t explain away their obnoxious behaviour with the excuse of “I didn’t know better.”
I do wonder, though, about the student whose school work sheets landed under a snowbank beside the driveway. Were they abandoned on purpose, or were they yanked from the owner’s grasp by the playground bully?
Along fencing throughout the city, food wrappers, drink cups, newspaper pages and random papers are caught in the fences and shrubbery, just waiting for the city’s clean-up date (May 10). The question arises: do the litterers join with their neighbours in collecting this refuse to qualify for a free hot dog and drink?
Even more disturbing than regular litterers is the evidence of littering by individuals paid to collect the recyclables of law-abiding citizens.
From the vantage of the kitchen window, I watched as the truck from the recycling company made its way up our avenue. I waited to see if our bin would be returned to the boulevard or deposited in the access to our driveway. In this instance, my attention was caught, on this windy day, by the papers that escaped as the bin was emptied.
Those papers were noticed but ignored by the company employee, who indeed stepped on a rather large white paper. He did not stoop over to retrieve it. And I couldn’t get to the door in time to shout a lesson about littering.
The wind that day did not take long to move the refuse a house or two to the intersection, and then it was gone from my view. The truck drove off, hopefully to return in two weeks, perhaps this time to make sure there isn’t litter left behind.
Meanwhile, we will be extra vigilant in removing our names from items we recycle. I don’t want anyone to accuse this household of discarding our litter so it blows into the neighbours’ yards.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
