Corrupt

• Goal
• Data
• Act

Sweden

We talk today with activist Alex Birch in Sweden, who has been spotted renovating a local woodland area after it became despoiled with modernist trash. We called him at his home in rural Sweden, from which he gave us the following activist report.

Howdy Alex, how are things going?

Good. It's rather hot in Sweden right now, but a lot of people have been waiting for the summer to arrive, and so have I.

You've been engaging in some green activism today?

I was taking a ride with my bike today by the countryside, which I usually do when it's summer. I spotted a woodland clearing where garbage had been thrown in the open green. It really made me angry, not just because we have several recycle stations just a few kilometres away, but also since this is one of my favorite places to be in the forest. I resolved to turn around, get some working gloves and a handful of plastic bags, and rip that threat to wildlife right out of the forest. And that's exactly what I did.

What sort of garbage had people been throwing out?

It looked like some car had just made a U-turn, throwing things out all over the place, before driving away. Coca Cola bottles, lots of newspapers and commercial magazines, boxes of styrofoam, pieces of metal and plastic, kitchen tools; they'd even thrown out a huge spotlight! Nearby was a stream of very important groundwater; if these metals escape into the ecosystem, it's not good for either plants nor animals.

It must have been hot doing this; how long did it take you?

I guess it was, but since no one else was going to pick it up - not even the paid people from the municipality, since it's was too deep into the forest - someone had to. It took me about three hours I think.

How did you dispose of the garbage you collected?

When I was done, I had seven full bags of garbage. [Four of them on the photo to the left - Ed.] The bike can only carry three bags at a time, so I had to make several trips. I had to switch to my car at that point and haul them to the local recycle station, where paper went into one bag, plastic in another, glass in a third, and so on.

Some people would say that this is unnecessary work, since people nowadays tend to throw trash out in green areas all the time?

People seem to be throwing trash anywhere, like they hate being alive and hate planet earth. The trend has spread to Europe, now in Sweden as well, which in other regards is a country with a strong environmental awareness. Of course, people will continue to throw garbage where they feel like it. That's how things are in a democratic society; people are too busy caring about themselves, so if they're too lazy to simply recycle their trash even though they only have 500 metres to the nearest recycle station, they'll stop by somewhere at the country side and throw it out.

However, who would be so pathetic, that one would simply walk by and leave the garbage there? To me, it's really very simple. Nature is my friend and I live with it every day. Since it has shaped me to who I am and given me lots of wonderful moments, and still is, why should I not repay it by cleaning it up?

I don't think this will save our country from pollution. The real environmental problems we face today in modern society; uncontrolled industrial expansion and pollution, rampant overpopulation, heavy import/export and insane amounts of consumption - will of course remain. But the reformation of our corrupt society starts with the individual. It starts with someone making a change, inspiring others to do the same thing.

If a leader in every community organized trash pick-ups every week, even in the cities, it would have an impact. It would prove that we do not tolerate these morons who think our planet is one big dumpster. It would show others that they can stop being problems, and start being solutions, by helping pick up trash. It would make them uneasy, since it would both exploit a dysfunction in our society, and prove how it's possible to do something about it.