Daily Garbage Challenge: How to Declutter Your Neighborhood
Recently, I started a new experiment picking up daily garbage along the road for the last 66 days. It said that Japan is a relatively beautiful and clean place. But is that really true? I'd like to share the results after these 66 days.
One rule
The only rule is that you need to pick up one piece of trash on the road every day.
My first item was a bottle on the first day of collecting daily garbage so I threw my garbage in this box.
I started this challenge because I just wanted to clean up the road and area I live in. I was really bothered by the amount of trash I would see on the road. If the roads become cleaner, I would feel better, and the villages would also become cleaner at the same time, which is really nice. So I started this challenge.
66 days
The reason why the challenge is 66 days is because the number 66 has a special meaning in Japan. It means to let go of one's obsession with things. I'm a minimalist, so I thought that these days were perfect.
I always picked one piece of trash and filled in a spreadsheet along the category and what I picked up that day.
Three things that I learned collecting garbage
1. First, you can find interesting things scattered around. Not just cans and bottles but blankets, golf balls, and even mysterious drinks. The most shocking thing was a bottle of snake sake, with the snake in it.
2. Second, trash is good at hiding. For example, when it snows. This challenge actually started around the fall of last year, and I was picking up trash every day. However, when it started to snow in winter, I couldn't see the garbage at all. So this challenge was stopped during that time. I just learned trash is really good at hide and seek.
3. Third, there is a habitat for each category of garbage. Animals and plants have a particular habitat for themselves to live in.
There is also a specific place for garbage to reside in as well.
I noticed that the same type of trash usually falls in the same place. For example, a bottle zone, cigarette box area, and plastic bottle area.
I don't know why, but it seems like garbage may also be choosing a place to live, like animals or plants.
A setback
I kept picking up the trash, even if it rained a little and in different places. Then one day, around the 50th day, I noticed there was less and less trash on the road, and it became more difficult to find. I felt so good it was worth the effort.
However, an incident occurred on the 57th day when I was working on the road. As usual, huge bottles and jars were scattered in the grass.
When I looked behind me, there were pickled things in jars, plums, snake sake, bee sake, and a mysterious drink.
It said that Japan is a very clean place, and few people throw things away on the road. I was so shocked. I thought it was getting cleaner, but I felt like I was again returning to the drawing board.
Sadly, some people do things like this. I had to move on. From today on, I will defeat the last boss. First of all, a jar and a big bottle. This way, in order to defeat the last boss, I picked up each item one by one. The morning of the fifth day, after I started to fight the boss, I was working as usual and found out the boss was defeated.
Apparently, while I was out of the village, the people who reside in this area cleaned up trash together. That was so great. In Japan, there is a custom of cleaning the place where we live by ourselves. That's one of the reasons why I like Japan.
The results
As a result of picking up trash for 66 days, many things were collected.
I divided it into categories such as plastic bottles, glass bottles, boxes, cans, paper caps or bottles, masks, plastic things, and others.
The top three of these were as follows. Third place, cigarette boxes, and cans, ten things each. Second place, bottles, including large ones, were eleven things. The first place was plastic bottles, twelve things.
Next were paper masks, paper cups, and plastic items, five of each, and miscellaneous others were eight.
What I felt after the 66-day challenge, with my little effort and the great effort of the villagers, I'm now able to run on a clean road with no trash. It's an ideal and beautiful road. Even if I'm running, it's very refreshing and comfortable.
As you know, Japanese people like beauty. I think it's because Japanese people have known the impact it would have on our environment and mind for a long time.
So now I want you to look around your place. If the environment around you is dirty right now, please start cleaning.
First, clean the room and clean the house.
If possible, clean the neighborhood. I'm sure your mind will feel refreshed. Cleaning can be a hassle in today's busy world. However, I think cleaning and creating a comfortable environment is the first step in making a happy, simple life.
Daily garbage challenge
I'll keep doing this challenge, so if you want, let's do this together and make the world cleaner for our future. What is the most common type of trash in your immediate area? Comment below with your findings as you clean.
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I do animal rescue and each day I go to my sites, I pick up all the trash on the lot with a grabber tool. It's good for environment where my animals live and the outdoor people keep it cleaner too, because they see me keeping it clean for them as well.
Growing up in the Midwest, it was considered an abomination to throw litter out in the environment. Sixty years later, it appears to have been normalized based on the quantity of trash and junk everywhere. The most encouraging thing about this video and article is that when others seen Samurai cleaning up the mess, they eventually joined in and picked up too. Start a trend and pick up your neighborhood regularly! Every item you collect and dispose of properly keeps that piece of trash out of the way of a healthy planet.