Winnipeggers' garbage behaviour should get trashed, Louella Lester says

I don't like winter much, but I'm happy some snow has fallen to help cover up the garbage that has accumulated along the streets of Winnipeg over the warmer months. I was getting tired of seeing food wrappers, flyers, tissues and cigarette butts. But this is only a short-term solution, because snow eventually melts. The only real solution to this garbage problem involves our attitudes and whether we can change them.

I've been contemplating our messy streets for some time, but I decided to write about it after watching a video on CBC News online. A man, frustrated with garbage and recycling pickup in his neighbourhood, posted a video that showed careless garbage pickup staff toppling his trash wheelie bin and leaving it lying in the street. The recycling pickup staff then tagged his recycling bin, saying they couldn't empty it because the garbage bin was lying in the way on the ground. There are a number of issues here, but I was left thinking about the garbage that inevitably ended up blowing about his neighbourhood.

• Winnipegger posts video of garbage crew spilling bin on street

This then led me to think about garbage that has nothing to do with wheelie bins — garbage people just drop on the streets or in parking lots, expecting someone else to clean it up.

I used to live near Corydon Ave and regularly saw empty gelato containers neatly placed on the street, sometimes a few at a time, two metres apart, obviously put there when the occupants of vehicles opened the doors, reached down and just left them there before driving back to the suburbs.

Who hasn't noticed piles of cigarette butts, often near car washes or gas stations? I have sometimes wondered about the explosive result if one of those cigarettes was not completely extinguished before the tray was dumped.

Mall parking lots seem to be another good location for dumping ashtrays and all types of garbage. It boggles the mind, but I've seen empty windshield washer fluid and oil containers sitting upright where cars were recently parked. I don't think they were accidentally left behind.

I often visit a friend who lives on a street near a bus stop, meaning lots of foot traffic passes his house daily. Almost every time I'm there, I see a flyer, a chocolate bar wrapper or an empty chip bag caught on the inside of his fence, dropped there by someone walking past.

Blowing in wind

All of this garbage eventually gets mixed in with the leaves piled up along street curbs, especially now that the city is not clearing them in the fall. Many people don't rake or bag their yard leaves anymore, instead opting for sexy leaf blowers to blow their leaves, along with the flyaway garbage clinging to them, into the gutters. This garbage will lie there throughout the winter, though some of it might be scooped up by snow clearing equipment, if that neighbourhood is lucky enough to have people who remove their cars on snow clearing days. The remainder will stay and become part of the soggy mess that will eventually be cleared up in the spring by street sweepers, if that neighbourhood is lucky enough to have people who remove their cars when signs are posted for that purpose.

I guess we wouldn't have a problem if we didn't have so much garbage to begin with, but the recent increase in reusable shopping bags has not come along with a big decrease in product packaging. Until that changes, we're stuck with a lot of that packaging that winds up blowing in the wind.

But enough of what I see, here's what I don't see. I don't see enough garbage or recycling bins on street corners, at bus stops or in mall parking lots. The problem of street garbage could be solved if people put their garbage in bins or took it home to dispose of rather than chucking it out car windows or letting it fall to the ground "accidentally" after a feeble attempt to pocket it.

Even if we eventually have plenty of refuse receptacles, that won't necessarily mean the problem of garbage in the streets will be solved. We each have to take the responsibility to get that garbage into those containers. For this to happen we need a change in our individual attitudes.