I live 100 metres from a high school. You can read a culture from what it discards. This is what they eat, drink, smoke, suck, chew and use.

The 120 pieces photographed represent only about 1/4 of the litter collected in the time it takes to walk to the school and back.

The statements above are excerpts from project that I did in 2002.

Having grown up in the city I can honestly say that I had become oblivious to litter. I think most of us are. We don't like it, but we don't go out of our way to pick it up. Our mayor has raised it as an important issue, vowing to clean up our streets. New waste bins will generate income from 2 metre high billboards attached to them. Our children have special clean up days at school. The city runs television, radio and print ads to inform its citizens not to litter. Still our streets are full. Maybe it's time for the corporations whose logos are found on this litter to take some responsibility for it. Every time you look down and see a piece of litter, chances are you recognize the brand even if it's just a decayed fragment of the logo. No different than looking up at a billboard or poster ad. Litter is free advertising. It shouldn't be.

1. it might be interesting to mandate a very large notice on any disposable container, similar to smoking warnings.

   it would say something like

   PLEASE RECYCLE THIS.

   Posted by kevin Bracken  on  11/28  at  07:02 PM

2. Hey, that makes a lot of sense. I wonder how we might work to get that done?

   Posted by  on  11/28  at  07:27 PM

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