There are some things in this life that we take for granted. Things like grocery stores, parks, library access, nice weather and more; we don’t even really think about them. Until we don’t have them or can’t get to them of course. Another thing we we really don’t think much about are street cleaners. Parking lot cleaners, those that do the power sweeping and the trash clean up, those that drive street sweeper trucks, we tend to forget about them. We take our clean streets for granted. When is the last time you were driving down the road feeling grateful for power sweeping. We have much more on our minds but maybe we should stop and take a minute to be appreciate all they do for us. Here are why streets need to be cleaned and why we should be thankful.
Water Contamination
Back in the day, men would manually come along and sweep all the animal waste, dirt and debris into the gutters and let the rain wash it down into the storm sewers and away into the water. This would cause major water contamination when they couldn’t separate the toxins from the drinkable water. Essentially, the waste would just get moved from one area to another. Nowadays, power sweeping allows the operator to drive a big contraption that sweeps all the litter underneath the machine and sucks it up just like a vacuum without spilling it into a different area of the street. This saves our water supply from become toxic. Once the machine is full it can be properly emptied and disposed of in a safe manner saving us and our planet.
Dangerous Obstacles
If power sweeping or street cleaning did not happen, there would probably be things in the road that could cause major accidents if drivers were not paying attention. Bicyclists would be weaving and dodging and possibly end up out in traffic trying to avoid the ltiter in the road which could also cause an accident. Have you ever seen how drivers react to boxes or bags in the road that have fallen from other vehicles? The swerve out of the way of them. This is because they don’t know what is in the box and are trying to avoid damage, which makes sense, but if these boxes and bags were allowed to drift around the roads, all that swerving would eventually cause disaster.
Added Pollution
There is already so much pollution in the streets from cars and vehicle exhaust. We don’t need to add to it by allowing the trash and waste that people throw out to ferment and become toxic and float off into the ozone layer. Many times there are things in the road that are very bad for our environment and allowing them to stay there will continue to pollute our planet and cause damage to the atmostphere. Getting them off the roads and properly disposed of helps to keep our cities a little bit more environmentally friendly. Even if you don’t necessarily think about the environment, we should be grateful that the city does.
Being Proud
If nothing else, you should be able to be proud of the place where you live. No one wants to live in a trash ridden neighborhood. It’s nice to be able to drive down your streets and enjoy the view without litter and pollution taking over. This is definitely something we take for granted. Most of us live in a certain area because we like the look and feel of it. How would we like the area if the look and feel were dirty and dusty, full of waste and litter? It would make for a very different neighborhood, that’s for sure. Most of us would probably end up moving to a cleaner area so we knew our children were breathing good quality air.
So, there you have it. Four reasons to be grateful that someone notices the things that we would not even consider in our day to day lives. Someone is looking out for us and protecting our breathing space by creating jobs and cleaning the streets. The next time you see some one power sweeping or a street cleaner, thank them instead of getting annoyed that they are in the way.