My coat pockets have a lot of garbage in them. There are food wrappers and kleenex, and plastic bags. I wait until I find a garbage can, and empty them. Same goes for the bag for garbage in my car. I throw the stuff in the recycling bin or garbage can after.
On my run today, think layers of algae were moving up the canal below and painting the most beautiful swirling picture in the water. it reminded me of a Van Gogh painting, painted by nature.
It was so stunning, I took a video. Then I noticed some plastic containers sitting on top of it, likely thrown down from cars on the bridge above, and I saw a mother duck and her four ducklings were swimming nearby. I felt upset about the litter being thrown in there.
I imagined if Van Gogh came back to life and set up to paint in my neighborhood, this would be the spot he would choose. There are guys with fishing rods trying to catch salmon, there are blue herons and tons of ducks, and beautiful algae in the water surrounded by farms and mountains.
I often hear about dead whales that are full of plastic, such as plastic bags which they mistake as food.
We hear a lot about efforts to clean up the ocean, but human behavior is the root of the garbage in the water problem. If we put it in the recycling and garbage bins, our waterways would be better off.