A father-son duo shared a video on an Ottawa subreddit that, at first glance, looks like a peaceful video of them kayaking past the snowy banks of Green's Creek. But the caption revealed otherwise.
"This creek is dying," the son wrote in the title. "Our creeks need our help and awareness!"
"Sadly like most creeks in our city, due to road salts and other pollutants the health of the creek is extremely low and is often toxic," he explained. They saw more bags of dog excrement, he lamented, than they did rapids.
"The issues that I once thought were solely industrial are also the result of individuals choices," he continued, encouraging fellow Ottawans not only to pick up after themselves, but to contribute to volunteer initiatives like the Ottawa Riverkeepers.
Many commenters were discouraged by the state of their environment. "It's awful to see how filthy we leave our environment," one said.
"If anyone is out and about walking I challenge people to find a ditch or green area that's not tainted by trash," another lamented.
Some commenters were also cynical about the probability of making a meaningful difference on a municipal level. "The city is well aware how bad the salt is for our waterways," one person said. "I assume the alternative is more expensive so the choice is made."
But another suggested that all hope was not lost. "Might help for us to put more pressure on them about this. With more evidence (with recent studies), and with pressure from the public, choices can be changed," they wrote.
Particularly when it comes to creating a culture of cleanliness, this optimism is justified — change is certainly possible, through a combination of resource management and education.
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste shared on its website that, while the strongest predictor of littering is "a lack of well-placed and regularly serviced public bins," there are a number of factors that can also reduce the behavior. These include "personal responsibility, feelings of community, and awareness of the environmental consequences of littering" as well as keeping an area regularly clean to discourage further littering.
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Additionally, some areas are looking into creative ways to combat litter, such as a line of floating "litter booms" capturing river debris in Texas or a robotic dog helping with trash pickups.
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