A Littered Bit of Accountability

This week I went out and got myself a bit of learning. It came in the form of a lecture/debate at the Koffler Institute on Carbon Offset Trading.
While I've long laughed at the premise of building a few windmills justifies a couple of rich folks flying in a corporate plane, as it's only the financial elite that are able to sell carbon credits in the first place. However, there is some truth in the fact that some accountability is better than none. It is with this in mind that I've pondered using these base ideas in conjunction with the Litter Guy Project.

Now I'm definitely not talking about exchanging a coupon that would enable the user five free litters for the couple of bucks donated to the litter guys or gals to aid in their cleaning of the streets, this would be absurd, would favor the financial elite and would be too much like the silly idea of carbon credits already in place, just on a grander scale.
But what if we took their silly idea to those that cause most of the litter problem...the ones that provide the garbage, not just the ones putting it on the ground. We've all seen that grounded, gaggle of golden arched garbage that doesn't fly south for the winter or back to the point of origin, let alone to the nearest trash bin.

The clown corporation ain't the only guilty ones, there's a myriad of caffeine container casher-inners (ok, maybe that alliteration was pushing it). Or maybe in the summer the bountiful, busomed, blondes handing out their easily discarded advertising with little or no accountability.
When it comes to the companies that provide the take-out sustenance we consumers so readily covet I'm sure they'd say it's a major part of their profitability, not unlike the claims of some sammy-smog-a lot corporation when it comes to the inability to reduce harmful emissions and still stay in business, hence their reasoning for carbon offset trading.

So I say to those that claim that their hands are tied when it comes to take-out refuse (and quickly pass the blame on to their clientèle) Holland doesn't need any more windmill to be tilted at but sweet mother molson, do our streets need more people cleaning them. Whether this comes in the form of environmental tax on those most guilty of this practice of garbage marketing (we all know someone who upon seeing a discarded container, quickly went to satiate their craving at the closest store) or these companies taking some initiative to provide a cleaning up of the garbage they helped create.

While this may seem like another Litter Guy whine-athon, there is some urgency to what I say, as a guy who bares witness to the filth we trudge through on our streets on a daily basis. This practice of exposing your colourfully packaged product through litter is on the increase and will continue so as the smaller companies copy this form of garbage marketing in the form of easily scattered company logos on colourful cards that are so numerous they inevitably have the effect of that annoying T.V. or radio jingle at a much cheaper price to their company. But believe me when I say there is a cost to be had and unless we demand some sort of accountability, it will be future generations that pay that steep price.