Before COVID-19 started, Rob Derochie had been going around his community and leaving coffee gift cards on posts.
However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, he realized that no one was particularly keen on taking random gift cards taped to posts.
Derochie decided to start picking up garbage instead. It was a way to get out of the house in a solitary way and it provided exercise.
“So, it ticked all the boxes for me. And I’m still doing something cool,” he said.
Where Derochie lives he can go to a coffee shop or grocery store and pick up a whole bag in one trip. But he knew that there were more places like that in Calgary.
Over the last month, he has been going to areas all over the city that have garbage lying around.
So far, he has collected 43 bags of garbage.
Unfortunately, when his workplace opens again Derochie won’t have the time to be able to continue regularly picking up garbage.
But, he’s inspired others. Another Reddit user posted a bag of garbage, inspired to do something nice for his community as well.
“When I saw that, that was the coolest thing in the world. To see that somebody else picked up on what I’m doing, it was heartwarming.
“There were a couple other comments saying they’re doing their own thing, so I’m definitely not the only one,” said Derochie.
In his trash travels, Derochie has hit 12 Calgary communities to bag garbage.
