I went for a 45 minute walk on the first weekend in April 2011 enjoying early spring weather. I encountered easily a couple dozen paper cups in ditches, on sidewalks and faded half buried in the last of the dirty snow. While some of it can be attributed to it, it isn't completely because everything is melting that these are now appearing. They are always turning up these days. I don't want to do a "I remember when.." but Toronto, where I grew up, was once known for it's cleanliness. And Canada generally too. That really is no longer is the case. And it is sad.
Tossed out of windows as people drive, left at bus stops, or dropped in gutters. Somewhat symbolic of this throw away society. It has become too convenient to spend money cutting down trees, on factories making paper cups and cardboard boxes to pack them in, on trucks to transport cups, on turning oil from the desert or bottom of the sea into lids and sleeves to pack the cups. Not to mention the mess it leaves behind when people don't care enough to put them in the garbage or recycling. What is the carbon footprint of one cardboard cup?
As I walked along, it occurred to me that photographing these discarded cups might be an interesting photo project. A visual record of one small segment of how much waste we create. And so this blog was born. I thought a completely separate blog from my main one suited the subject matter. It will primarily just be photos, not much narrative.
Even without going out of my way searching for them, I am sure the numbers won't be low, but I am curious to see the final count. I will use whatever camera is at hand, likely my Olympus point and shoot, or if I ever get a phone with a good camera I will use that for convenience sake.
And that cup above? It looks like it was a winner...