What do you get out of cleaning your local environment?

A few weeks ago I started to clean up some rubbish here and there in my local park. I am bothered by rubbish in the street, particularly in green spaces these days as like most people, I value them that much more during the pandemic. There is so much beauty around, but litter can mar it.

I found it a bit awkward to start doing this at first and wondered whether people would think I was strange, but focussed on wanting to make the space a bit better for myself and others. The worry about what other people would think soon faded away though. I also found that it wasn't the most fun experience and initially wore gloves (getting a litter picker helped though) to keep my hands clean. However there was a lot of satisfaction in it and I felt more committed to helping my local space to be better and greener moving forward.

Past research shows I'm not alone. A research study by Wyles et al (2017) found that university students who participated in cleaning a beach found greater meaning in the experience and were more careful in how they behaved in their wider environment, than those who experienced the short term enjoyment of walking along it. I hope that if we keep it clean and remove litter, we can have both, but this suggests it has a powerful impact. Likewise Uneputty et al. (1998) found that a community based programme involving litter removal at another beach in Indonesia was effective in reducing littering behaviour up to 6 months later. So there is an argument to be made that clean up operations could be more widespread and help us to value our local environment that much more.

Arguably community based operations are the most effective way to do this so you can do it with a sense of togetherness and connect with other people you might never otherwise meet. If there is one thing we need as humans, it's the opportunity to connect with likeminded others.

References:

Uneputty, P., Evans, S. M., and Suyoso, E. (1998). The effectiveness of a community education programme in reducing litter pollution on shores of ambon bay (Eastern Indonesia).J. Biol. Educ.32, 143–147. doi: 10.1080/00219266.1998.9655611
Wyles, K. J., Pahl, S., Holland, M., and Thompson, R. C. (2017). Can beach cleans do more than clean-up litter? comparing beach cleans to other coastal activities.Environ. Behav.49, 509–535. doi: 10.1177/0013916516649412