How I’m Reinvigorating My Spirit Of Exploration With Litter Picking

When life gives you lemons… utilize garbage to restore a sense of childlike wonder... or something like that.

That’s Trash

It was around a month ago. I was walking across the bridge on my old route to high school. A lot of things have changed in the five or so years since I graduated.

The surrounding trees are a lot taller. To the point where a lot of the views are blocked off. Additionally, the stream used to be a tiny trickle of water. Now the flow of water was many feet wide.

Oh, and also, it’s completely trashed. Still is at this moment. I saw a folder from the local middle school, tons of paper and plastic. It was an absolute eyesore to look at.

This was probably the point where I started experiencing the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.

Now every time I’m out on a walk, I can’t help but notice how much litter there is on my local streets. I mean, I live in a suburban area with a ton of cul-de-sacs, so it’s nowhere near as bad as in the city. But it’s still notable in places.

I started counting all of the tissues and food wrappers in the bushes as I walked by. It didn’t take long for the numbers to get into the thirties and forties.

As I said, it’s been a month since I first saw the mess from the bridge. To this day, it is still there. And it’ll probably remain there for a very long time.

Yet Another New Hobby

That was the catalyst that gave cause for me to restart a long-forgotten activity. One that I hadn’t done since I was in 3rd grade. That’s over 15 years ago, as of the time of writing.

I used to go around the schoolyard during recess with a toy claw picker, and just pick up garbage. Occasionally, one or two friends or classmates would join in, and we’d leave it in a pile for the janitor to scoop up.

And well, I started doing that again last week. Only now that I’m grown-up (relatively speaking), I can do more than before. I bought myself a nice pair of litter tongs and other gear, mostly with free Amazon gift cards.

My motivations aren’t entirely pure though.

I’m mainly just tired of seeing the junk. And also, I’m doing it for myself. It’ll get me outside and away from the computer my work, leisure, and life have been condensed into.

Furthermore, by being outside more, I can expose myself to potential social situations. School was essentially the only shared space for real-life interactions for me. Pokemon Go was the other one.

Then the pandemic happened, and it’s been over a year since I graduated anyway. Everything left is online. And I quit geolocation games after 6 years in 2022. I’ve lost all connections I had, amongst many things since this all started.

So this’ll give another reason to go back out into the world to explore.

Really, any altruistic aspect is more of an accidental side-effect. (sarcasm)

Reversion And Immersion

I’m trying to make this fun and tap into my inner child by treating this as a game. I find that gamification and fantasy can make even the most mundane things interesting. And it’s really something I’ve been missing.

This way, it isn’t just removing yucky garbage. It’s exploring new areas, unlocking portions of the world map, and gaining points & badges. Because there’s nothing more satisfying than watching arbitrary numerical values increase incrementally.

And to boot, I might capture some interesting stuff on camera while doing so. Because you know me, I’m obsessed with documentation. And I need more excuses to use this action camera and get my money’s worth out of it.

My inaugural session went quite differently than expected. I was thinking about what milestones I should set to achieve. Round numbers like a hundred sounded good, but it also seemed like a lot.

Little did I know, that would be rookie numbers.

I was expecting a couple of dozen pieces. But just in two blocks, I already had passed the 30 mark. It became almost fifty by the time I even made it to the bridge, and I had to do my first cashout at the trash receptacle.

Then, I went underneath and started picking there. It was almost like an endless portal. Piece after piece would emerge from the grass. After a full hour, I had finally de-littered the place. I was tired out though.

I didn’t even manage to get to the river portion that I initially wanted to clean. I’d have to come back another day. It was the fastest hour I had experienced in some time.

After that, I filled another bucket on the path. Then found a whole sneaker at the end. And that marked the end of a pretty decent first session.

My expectations were far surpassed.

In the end, the tally was 222 litter pieces, amounting to about 18 gallons of trash. I unlocked my bronze Piece and Gallon badges. And discovered new areas like the Bottled Bridge and Path of Memories.

It’s definitely going to be some work to reach the endgame. But the expedition there should be interesting. I’m sure it’ll continue to be a good experience.

Even if it’s basically just playing pretend as an adult.