A Short Story & Tiny Innovation
Story
I want to leave this place better than I found it. Ok, that’s good. How? One way is reverse littering: picking up littered trash. That’s what I did today at Sandy Hook beach. It was mostly enjoyable (I was walking on the beach after all). It kinda sucked to see so much trash though. I filled a tote bag and returned to my family’s spot on the beach. They seemed surprised by how much I had reverse littered. Actually, I could have filled 500 tote bags. Then we saw a black plastic bag drifting along the sand, unscathed by the elements. I didn’t reverse litter it. I wanted to send a message. I’m not sure it was the right message. Maybe I just picked up enough garbage for one day and didn’t want to run after any more. It will be nice when there isn’t as much garbage to reverse litter; when it will take a long walk to fill up a small tote. At any rate, reverse littering is one thing humans can do when robots take over productivity jobs (because it’s good-fun, not because robots can’t do it).
Innovation
There is all sorts litter. Some is recyclable, some is Terracyclable (I saw Capri Sun pouches, chip bags and solo cups), some is redeemable (mycokerewards) and some, unfortunately, is just trash for all practical purposes. Instead of single streaming it in my tote, it would be better to compartmentalize it. Since I don’t want to be in the business of creating unnecessary stuff (i.e. compartmentalized totes), perhaps next time I will use a couple of reverse littered plastic shopping bags and a zip lock to sort as I go.
