BUY YOUR CHILD A LITTER PICKER!

BUY YOUR CHILD A LITTER PICKER!

 Research emphatically tells us connecting with the flora and fauna in our natural surroundings enhances our physical and mental well being by lowering our blood pressure, reducing our stress hormones and boosting our immune system.

Normally, one would eagerly applaud the fact that more people are enjoying the great outdoors.

Wherever, I often  venture  as far as the eye can see, the forest floor has been  completely blanketed with mounds of unsightly litter from polypropylene masks to a myriad of plastic bags and containers.

 Many Conservation Areas have posted signs that remind outdoor enthusiasts to leave nothing behind but their footprints.  The majority of people accept and respect the importance of refraining from turning Mother Earth into a gigantic garbage dump, but unfortunately a few DO NOT!

Youngsters should learn  from  from a very early age, about the alarmingly detrimental impact of litter on our environment, wildlife, and humans.

Hmmm-it appears that it is adult who need to learn the following- if  you have  a picnic in a local park and leave behind a plastic shopping bag -that plastic bag could eventually cause the agonizing death of a dolphin, a beaked whale, or a sea turtle.

How is that  possible you might ask?

Plastic bags carelessly thrown on the ground might take up to 1,000 years to decompose.  

The wind could blow it around for many years and eventually it might end up in a river. 

All rivers flow to one of our 4 oceans. After many years of floating around, the plastic bag will start to break into countless pieces. 

An albatross, a dolphin, and a turtle could end up trying to eat the plastic pieces and suffer a slow agonizing death.

As an aside, I just learned surgical masks made from polypropylene release toxins when they decompose and may take up to 300 years to decompose! 

They do NOT biodegrade.

 Massive amounts of plastic waste are not only harming marine animals but also the physical world including rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, field, and the oceans - habitats for wildlife.

Buy your child a  litterpicker. 

Kids thinks searching for trash, spearing it witha  litter picker is a fun game. 

Kids can take  takes it with on all outings.  (Picker can be folded)

 Parents, whose kids want to pick up trash as well, are constantly asking where to buy one for their kids.

Then, it occurred to me, just like the City sells rain barrels to the public every spring, why don’t they start selling litter pickers.

 Definitely a win-win-win! 

The kids would get great exercise and experience a wonderful sense of accomplishment.

 Not only are they protecting the ecological health of Lake Simcoe, but they are helping to prevent the untimely death of marine animals.

The City staff would have more time to use their training and unique expertise working permanent improvements in the City.

And finally all residents and tourists would appreciate and enjoy a pristine lakeshore not marred by litter.