What I Didn’t Expect When I Started Picking Up Litter

When I started Pick It Up Seattle, I expected to see cleaner streets. What I didn’t expect was how much I would enjoy the process myself.

Like many people, I usually walk to the gym each day. One morning, I decided to put on a pair of gloves and pick up a few pieces of litter along the way. I figured I’d make a small difference before starting my workout.

What I didn’t realize was that every few steps I’d be bending, reaching, carrying, and moving just a little bit more than I normally would. By the time I arrived at the gym, I was already sweating.

I actually laughed and thought to myself, “Good news… no aerobics needed today!”

It turns out I was probably burning nearly twice as many calories as I would on my normal walk. Who knew cleaning up your community could double as a workout?

That was my first surprise. The second surprise was even bigger.

After cleaning up a street, I kept expecting it to be littered again a day or two later. It wasn’t.

That made me realize something I hadn’t considered before. Maybe we aren’t creating as much new litter as it appears. Maybe old litter simply remains until someone decides to remove it.

Once an area is clean, something interesting happens: people seem to respect it.

I’ve noticed that when people walk through a clean neighborhood, along a downtown sidewalk, through a business district, in a park, or along the waterfront, they seem much less likely to throw something on the ground. Clean places tend to stay clean.

That was an incredibly encouraging discovery. It reminded me that one person’s effort can last much longer than we might expect.

Every time one of us picks up a piece of litter, we aren’t just cleaning a sidewalk for a few minutes. We may be helping create a place that others naturally want to keep clean too.

Those discoveries have reinforced why I started Pick It Up Seattle.

What began as a simple idea has already given me unexpected rewards: a better workout, a cleaner city, and a growing belief that people really do respond to kindness.

Sometimes the smallest actions teach us the biggest lessons.

So tomorrow, when you head out for a walk, maybe pick up just one piece of litter.

I wonder what you’ll discover.