It is easy to see the bad things about a city like Granollers but how depressing to concentrate on them rather than enjoy the good and the beautiful. That’s why I decided to try and write mostly about the positive things in this blog.
However ( I was clearly leading up to this) I can’t avoid talking about the rubbish problem.
I am out walking every day and tend to go to the parks, along the river and up to the Tower, all places where other people feel free to toss their rubbish, whether it is large like a sofa, polluting like old cans of paint, or small like coke cans or cigarette packets.
What I find both depressing and fascinating is that here in Granollers there is ample provision of places to put your rubbish. There is a large recyling centre close to the centre for plastics and paper and glass and large objects and paints etc.
There are hundreds of litter bins. Our little square has three all in the space of a few metres
Every street corner has large containers which are emptied regularly
Recently we walked through the Park Lledoner when the wild flowers were at their best. But all along the path there were papers and plastics and bottles and cans.
People make a big fuss about dog shit but frankly who cares? It is organic and will disappear. Plastic and metal will be around for the rest of our lives. Unless someone else picks it up. People here assume that someone else will come and clean the streets. And usually they do. The workers from the council. Or me!
I gathered up as much as my plastic bag would hold
I tried to do it with love rather than cursing the people who dropped the stuff. Who could do this except someone who is unwell in mind or spirit? Often the worse piles are right beside the bins. Bags of rubbish that are left underneath. Is this some angry statement of ‘noone cares about me so I won’t care about them’?
Some people stopped and thanked me for doing it. Perhaps if more of us began to clean the parks and paths then we could change this strange behaviour? Come on people of Granollers! Do you really want a British woman to be cleaning up all your messes? The little square near our house is cleaned every morning and yet when I go there with Bonnie at night – it is covered in rubbish again
On the positive side thank you the Granollers council for providing so many bins and for organising the cleaning services which are always out on the streets tidying up after the sad minority who can’t walk a few metres to find a bin.
