Last Sunday, I went down to Belle Isle with a few of my fellow earth lodgers. It was a bit cold at first but soon the sun began o shine and the coldness faded away as we walked. CJ, Carolyn, Mike, Caroline and I each grabbed a plastic bag and began to look for garbage to pick up.
The very first thing we noticed were cigarette butts. There were literally thousands of cigarette butts spread throughout Belle Isle. At first I thought to myself that the cigarette butts are made out of paper and cotton and they must be decomposable. However, after the service trip, I looked it up and apparently cigarettes butts are the most littered item in America as well as the world. Many kinds of cigarette butts can take decades to degrade. Not only does cigarette butts ruin the most beautiful nature setting, but the toxic content in cigarette butts (aka filters) is damaging to the environment. There has also ben report that cigarette butts cause numerous fatal fires every year. I am very disappointed in the people who litter their cigarette butts at such beautiful places like Belle Isle. It is also a mystery to me that if people enjoy coming to Belle Isle, why do they choose to ruin the scenery by leaving all these cigarette butts behind?
The other thing that got me thinking was the fact that I found many “Environmental Sustainability” stickers at the beginning of the trip. The stickers were from Teracycle, an organization that provides free waste collections programs for hard to recycle materials, which they then use to produce green products. I like the idea behind the organization very much; however the fact that they left all these stickers laying around on Belle Isle frustrates me a lot. They are a company that strives for environmental protection yet they are causing harm to the environment when they advertise themselves. Many organizations I’ve been involved in are too focused on the goal but they don’t seem to realize how much harm they are doing when striving for this goal. I do not agree, enthusiasm is indeed an important attribute for success; however without proper planning and a clear vision of success, there is no way one would achieve his or her goal.
The lesson I got from this service trip is to never ignore the bigger picture when striving towards my goal. It is never okay to sacrifice the means to achieve an end. Also, smoking cigarettes is bad, but littering cigarette butts is worse.