It's Easy Being Green- unedited; Don't Feed The Ducks

My whole life I have enjoyed the lakes

The old L dock at the Fenelon beach, boating, and wakeboarding, fishing, and kayaking. Snowmobiling and ice fishing in the winter, soaking in the breeze and cooling off in the summer. 

Never did I feel a responsibility to take care of the lake...until one sunny day a few years ago.

*Cue violin dream music*

It was a Sunday afternoon, and my husband and I were out fishing on our old tin boat in the south end of Sturgeon Lake near the floating cottages. On this day a family of ducks came to say hello and as we watched the baby ducks we noticed one scoop up a cigarette but into his mouth. Oh no, what will happen to that baby duck after eating a butt? Will he die? Then the baby spit the butt out- phew.

I wondered- why is there a cigarette butt floating in our lake?

Then it dawned on me.

Me- that's how!

I have been an on and off smoker since I was a teenager, a terribly hard habit to kick, and even though I would never litter and cared about the environment I threw my butts out the window of my truck. Maybe because my truck didn’t come with an ashtray? Maybe because the butt is so small that I didn’t think it was litter? I don’t know why.

At that moment I visualized the butt landing on the shoulder, eventually making its way to the ditch, that then flowing into the lake that I love so much.

From that day on I had an ashtray in my truck and if I was out and there was no ashtray I put it out and put it in my pocket- from that day on it was my garbage and my responsibility.

1 cigarette butt contaminates 1 litre of water- our lake water, and one cigarette butt is enough to poison an animal. 

Our Kawartha lakes give so much to us- let's give back by taking care of them and keeping litter out of them.

Did you know terracycle.ca recycles cigarette butts and gives a charity of your choice money for them? agreenerfuture.ca also gives out pocket ashtray's for free to help you keep your butts off the ground and out of our lake. Check them out!

Pocket ashtray

Thanks for reading my blog!

Julia Taylor