So we went home, grabbed some gloves and big trash bags when my brother said he's going to join us when he finishes his lunch. The area around the playground was not maintained for a while so there was a lot of tall grass around it and around the benches. Trash cans that were once there got destroyed and then removed. During the summer a lot of young teenages gathers around here and they leave a complete mess! Broken glass from the beer bottles smashed on the concrete playground, trash from the snacks and soda/beer cans, a whole lot of cigarette boxes cigarette butts. Couple of days ago all the grass was taken care off and during that process, a bigger and stronger mowing machine they used ripped to pieces all the trash that was hiding in the grass, especially the cardboard material.
Somewhere in the middle of our mission, my niece said "This is a hard work!" and I agree. I had mixed emotions where on one side, I wanted to whop the butts of those who left this behind, thinking how this was not our "job" to do but on the other side, I was hoping that at least this would be a good lesson for my niece and myself too. I say this because I don't want to pretend I am perfect, I threw a few chewing gums and bus tickets in the grass before. And yes, I do regret it and I think it's bad but unfortunately, I cannot change what has been done.
I am not proud to say that scenes like this are not strange at all in Serbia. A lot of young adults are destroying the environment in one way or another - you can see the benches that are also ruined, a lot of kids playgrounds end up the same... I guess kids should be taught from the young age basic manners at home and later reminded about it at school, at least that's my opinion. But I also see adults throwing away trash on the streets, it's usually small pieces of paper or something like that so the youngsers are not the only one to blame.
Another problem we have here in Serbia is very poor, in small places like mine even non-existing recycling system. We also use a lot of plastic in general and this is something me and my family are guily of. Plastic bags, bottles and packages are probably the main things that end up in trash, without recycling. I do use tote bags for shopping and try to re-use a plastic bottle as many times as I can (I need to buy a good quality reusable bottle) but I guess I could do more. Anyways, maybe this is a subject for another post.
We'll see how long the playground will stay somewhat clean. We also attached one bag for trash at the place where once the trash can was. Hopefully, they will not be lazy to get up and despose the garbage instead of just leaving it everywhere. If nothing else, I just wish that nobody will ever have to pick up trash after my nieces and nephew, and maybe my children someday. :D
I would love to hear from you, how would you handle situations like this? Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.
Some of my previous posts:
