Sunday afternoon I shot this video along Main and Fulton counting 129 coffee cups. Did I pick them up? No I did not...not my job.
Monday morning, I sent a tweet to our Mayor Brad Woodside with the above video attached expressing my disgust of this mess. Within an hour I received a tweet back from him that read:
Agree. I will bring it up.RT @pam_wheaton: @Chaf @bradwoodside @frederictonnews Good for you Chafic! It's an excellent, and very simple idea
It's great to live in a city where your mayor actually directly responds to tweets every day. And it's actually him, I've seen him tweet in the past. I was excited that he had seen the video (assuming) and said that he would bring it up.
Well yesterday morning, a friend of mine notified me that Capital FM had reported that councillor Bruce Grandy brought the issue up in a council-in-committee session Monday night. He was also very disappointed by the mess left behind and proposed that garbage cans should be made available for next year's parade!
Here is a clip of Grandy discussing the issue on Capital FM:
http://www.capitalfm.ca/Channels/News/Story.aspx?ID=1578403
Now I'm not sure if I can take all the credit here. The Article in the Gleaner mentions that Coun. Grandy was approached by some people at a local northside eatery, but either way I'm glad that a few complaints is actually getting something done in this city.
The next step is to try to get a meeting with Mr Grandy and possibly Mr Woodside to discuss my photography project and see if there is anything the city could do to encourage changing our nasty North American coffee culture. Our fast food, drive thru nation is making our city ugly and it's up to Frederictonians to make a difference here.
If you're on the twitters, please take a minute to thank Mayor Woodside and Bruce Grandy for taking the lead on this issue.
I certainly would hope that as adults people would be responsible enough to pick up their own trash but they don't. It should not fall on the city but it does. People can lug a heavy, full cup, all over the place but empty it and it becomes someone elses problem. Chafic, you are out in the community and have been for quite a while documenting this dilemma. It seems with the majority of the cups being those of Tim's, it should be them that also steps up to the plate in order to fulfill their civic duty to this very real problem.I see that they have started a recycling program in some choice locations but I feel if it is not utilized it will be scrapped and that would be a shame. Sometimes, there needs to be an incentive program for the ones that need that extra push. I guess this was the eye opener that the city needed to get this problem "cleaned up".
ReplyDeleteI have recently moved here from Vancouver and I have to say that the first thing I have noticed about this city is the garbage - EVERYWHERE! I notice it most in the woods and along any fresh water. The banks of creeks/rivers are gross. In BC, efforts are constantly made to clean up and the public is very sensitive to litter. Here I think it's a negative combo of ignorance and a lack of effort on the city's part to keep things clean. How about we organize a clean up in the Spring? Heck, I'll join you right now!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Jolie! I'm planning on picking up all discarded coffee cups that I find in my path over the next year. I'm going to document them and store them for the year and see how many cups I can find. I would definitely love some help with this project if you are interested.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on bringing this to everyone's attention Chaf!
ReplyDeleteI am sure some of the people responsible were there at the parade with their kids....definitely not being a great role model to their kids!
I have a table at the Boyce Farmers' Market and it is amazing, on any given Saturday, how many people just deposit their coffee cups on my table . . . and there is a garbage can not three feet away!
ReplyDeletethis is stupid going on peoples property and taking pictures of coffee cups..there is one thing that will bother most people and that is what else are you taking videos of and if it is more you are violating privacy.most people will be watching and if you are entering property without asking i would say you are truspassing.
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern "Anonymous". Trust me, I only pick up any cups that are in my path and do not go onto people's property unless I can reach the trash from the street. I'm definitely careful with taking photographs at night as I do not want to alarm anyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.