Day 7 - Chapman Park

Date: Aug 12, 2021

Location: Chapman Park

Garbage (lbs): 2

Recycling (lbs): 1

This cleanup marked our third park cleanup in August, which was completed with 3 members of our project group (plus one friend who volunteered to help). Our initial impression of Chapman Park was that it seemed quite an unused park with lots of visible trash. This initially seemed strange, since it was quite a small park and there was little area to litter. However, it quickly became clear why there was so much trash on the ground; first, there was significant tree cover to obscure some of the areas of the park (in contrast to parks like Optimist Park, which was wide open). Also, the park was seldom visited which actually decreased the accountability of people littering; it seems much more socially acceptable to litter when you think there won't be anyone to see you doing it.

Although not an absolute correlation, these two factors do seem to suggest that smaller, less visited parks are actually the ones most likely to have a lot of litter. Given that we were able to pick up 3 pounds of trash total for such a small area, we can effectively conclude the "trash density" of this park was the highest out of the parks we've done so far. Indeed, we even encountered an area at the back of the park where someone (presumably after an intense late-night party session) had littered a dozen or so beer cans on the ground. Since the area where we found this was obscured from vision by a large tree, it was highly likely the people who littered thought they would be able to easily get away with this.

These observations seem to strengthen the case for increased regulation of littering, as social perception as a mechanism is heavily diluted for lesser-visited parks. Whereas for larger parks many people can see when you litter, we encountered only around 1 or 2 people in the entire time of our trash cleanup at Chapman Park. A better alternative would be to especially place "No Littering" signs or warnings at these places, particularly areas obscured from vision. This would help remind citizens to not litter in those areas, or at the very least act as a somewhat deterrent. It would also be a relatively cheap addition for the town; signs are quite easy to manufacture and place.

However, this cleanup was not just full of bad news. During our cleanup, a kind citizen actually came up to our group and offered us Freezies and thanked us for our volunteer work. However, even though we turned down their generous offer, we all felt a sense of gratitude and fulfilment in our work. Indeed, we recognized that despite no tangible rewards to our community service, there were people out there who were watching and appreciated our impact on keeping the community clean. We hope that more citizens are able to see our cleanup efforts and receive the positive messaging of not littering, and making ethical environmental choices in their daily lives.

#CASCleanup2021