Trash talk

AMSTERDAM - Long before the ‘plastic soup’, the huge floating rubbish dump in the Pacific, hit the headlines, I had an odd fascination with litter. As a kid, while my friends were doing sponsored walks to raise money for charity, I was doing sponsored litter picks. On a three-kilometre stretch of road near my house, I could fill 10 bin bags with refuse that passing motorists had thrown out of their windows.

So it was with a strange sense of déjà vu that I recently stumbled across the website ikprikmee.nl. Launched in 2007 by Nico van Paridon, a Dutch jogger disgruntled by the mess he encountered on his running route, ikprikmee (which loosely translates as ‘I’ve joined the litter pick’) aims to encourage others to clean up their patch of Holland. The time was clearly right for me to get back in the litter-picking game, starting with my street.

Some hardware shops sell proper litter pickers – a device akin to pincers with a long handle so you don’t have to keep bending down; Van Paridon takes a pair of old pasta tongs along with him on his runs. Having neither of these, I went with what I did have: washing-up gloves.

I hit my street when people were starting to come home from work. After going up and down both sides of it, I was curiously disappointed to find I had neat neighbours. Instead of the easy and copious pickings in the verges of my youth, in the Dutch capital I had difficulty filling half a shopping bag with rubbish.

Items collected? A cigarette packet, two soft drink cans, an unfinished carton of milk, a battery, plastic spoon and part of a bicycle lamp. I also came across a packet of hair bands (unused) and a sock (used).

I’d hoped that by going out when the street was busy someone might ask what I was doing, But in Amsterdam, the sight of someone poking around in the undergrowth wearing pink rubber gloves apparently doesn’t even merit a second glance. Maybe I’ll do it naked next time.

I failed miserably to recapture the litter-picking glory of my childhood. However, I have new respect for my eco-conscious neighbours and for my rubber gloves, which performed superbly under conditions I’m sure the manufacturer never imagined.