Bring trash control to a personal level

To the Editor:

What is it about Nova Scotians? We throw our garbage out the car/truck window and could care less! We happily soil our own nests, something other mammals and birds would never do.

I cycle and I walk. I ride and walk the secondary roads of this slice of God's land, mostly the Valley roads around Cambridge, North River Road, Kentville, Gaspereau, Wolfville, Starr’s Point, Canning, Sheffield Mills. I also ride the Digby Neck, all the way to Briar Island.

The trash is everywhere. Cigarette packages, coffee cups with plastic tops, fast food packaging (sometimes a whole bag of it with the vendor’s name proudly stamped upon it), beer cans, pint bottles, pop cans, the occasional computer monitor, Styrofoam cups, water bottles.

We don't like it in our vehicles so we chuck it. Who cares about the roadside?

It's time we woke up. The planet is in bad shape already. But there are a few things we can still control. In a province that is a leader in waste management in the world, let's bring it down to a personal level. Let's clean up our roads. A simple strategy:

1. Take a walk along one of our roads and pick up the litter.

2. Stop throwing it out of our vehicles. Drive it home and sort it.

3. Teach our children to do the same by modeling it and discussing it.

4. Take and teach responsibility.

5. Take control.

I think it will feel good. I know it will feel good. Mother Earth will love it. The next time we travel that same road, we will see the result of our good work.

Mike Nicholson,

Tupper Lake

Cambridge, N.S.