Pick up after yourself.
It seems like a simple enough request. Our parents drill it into us as children when they told us to clean our rooms or pick up the games and toys.
Oddly enough, the lesson didn't stick for far too many people - at least when it comes to our public spaces.
All too often people are making their garbage somebody else's problem.
Why is it that a lot of folks seem to think it's okay to drop their food wrapper or beverage can on the ground wherever they may be standing or walking?
Would you go to somebody's house and drop a potato chip bag on the living room carpet?
Would you discard your halfeaten hot dog on the front mat as you entered the doorway?
How about smashing a glass container on the kitchen floor for anyone and everyone to trek through the broken shards?
No? You wouldn't treat a friend, acquaintance or stranger with such disrespect in their own home?
Well why, then, is it okay to treat all of the above with disrespect in our collective living
room, kitchen and front step?
That's essentially what our public spaces are.
They are the places we can all go to have fun, relax and meet.
But we can't do those things when they are littered with refuse.
Just because there are no physical walls or floor doesn't mean it's suddenly all right to toss anything you want anywhere you want.
It's especially egregious to do so when there are garbage bins available for your use.
Just because you have to walk a couple of metres doesn't negate your responsibility to be a good citizen and use them.
Nobody should be that lazy. Because that's really what it comes down to - laziness.
There's no excuse for not hanging onto you candy bar wrapper for a couple of minutes until you can discard it properly.
Nobody ever died from having to carry their pop tin to the trash.
Even if you have to take a bag with you and collect your trash to take home and for proper disposal, that's what you should do. We're all guests in our public spaces; we must act like it.