Signs of spring

Easter Monday offered many of us a pleasant day off from work and school, with bright sun and decent temperatures warming the ground and starting to melt the monstrous mounds of snow most people would say they are sick and tired of. Yes, spring is on its way.

With about five months of winter and over 350 centimetres of snow behind us, this may be welcome news for many. However, along with plenty of puddles to dodge, the hint of spring at the beginning of this week also started to reveal something not so pleasant.

It's the same thing every year: as the white snow blanket is slowly pulled away, everything from fast food wrappers, coffee cups, and newspaper pages dated from November 2007 to plastic water bottles, soggy cigarette butts, and doggy poop some irresponsible dog owners didn’t bother to pick up are revealed. These leftovers hidden in the winter landscapes' layers until now can quickly turn a pleasant walk into a disgusting game of sidewalk-sidestepping. Not to mention, trees adorned with plastic grocery bags and pavement bedecked in old paper, chewed gum, and all sorts of other garbage are not exactly forms of urban decoration.

Westmounters have many opportunities to give the environment a hand through recycling, disposing electronic and hazardous waste appropriately, not idling your car, taking public transportation -- the list goes on and on.

This Saturday, Westmount will also be among numerous other cities around the world taking part in Earth Hour. This initiative will see all essential lighting switched off between 8 and 9 p.m. to raise awareness about energy consumption and climate change. Along with participating cities, residents are encouraged to mark Earth Hour as well.

While events like this may help remind people about the importance of having an environmental conscience, taking care of the planet should play a role in the decisions we make every day – including reducing the amount of litter rolling, blowing, and just sitting around.

Westmount -- with its impressive architecture, attractive parks and green-spaces, urban areas whose restaurants and shops attract people from all over – is a charming place to live. While the litter throughout town is not the work of all Westmounters – but of a few careless bad apples – it is up to everyone to fix the problem. Pick up your garbage, recycle and reuse what you can, and keep Westmount beautiful.