If you spend time in West Seattle, you may have noticed some mobile clean-up stations scattered around the area, encouraging people to grab a bucket and help keep the neighborhoods clean. Block Drop, an environmentalist initiative started by three Girl Scouts who wanted to make a difference in their community, set up these stations.
While it’s easy to care about the environment’s future and want to create change, it can be hard to implement alongside a busy life schedule. Numerous activities, such as work, family matters, money, and more, can inhibit people from participating in the climate change movement. Block Drops help bridge the gap by giving people the autonomy to get involved when they have the time.
What is a Block Drop?
Block Drop is a DIY clean-up initiative that gives people the autonomy to help clean up their neighborhoods when and where they want. The three founders are middle schoolers Evelyn Bell, Paige Dempsey, and Emma Kelley, who came up with the idea while brainstorming their Silver Award service project for the Girl Scouts.
Block Drops has multiple mobile clean-up stations around the West Seattle area, with pickup gear, bags, and buckets for people to use. The equipment is available for free use during a specific time (e.g., from 9 AM to 5 PM) and then picked up at the end of the day and disposed of correctly.
Volunteers can join and clean up on their own time and dispose of the trash picked up by throwing it away in a public trash bin or putting their collection in a yellow bag at the Block Drop station. People also have the opportunity to plan their own Block Drop events so that they can do it with a community.
Why are initiatives like Block Drops important?
Block Drops are valuable for many reasons. Firstly, it shows the ingenuity and drive the younger generations have for combating climate change and finding ways to protect the environment. With children and teenagers being the generations most affected by climate change in the future, there has been a rise in child activists worldwide using their creativity and passion to create novel initiatives, groups, and projects that contribute to the fight against climate change. This is evident with Eveyln, Paige, and Emma, three Girl Scouts who created a project to clean their communities.
Secondly, Block Drops help address the lack of accessibility for people to take strides toward engaging in climate activism. Studies show that about 71% of US Americans believe climate change is primarily due to human activity. Yet, many don’t have the time to make schedule changes that could allow them to participate in activities that protect the environment and their communities.
Many individuals must go to work, worry about their finances, families, etc. This makes action against climate change hard to accomplish. Block Drops help bring down some of those barriers by allowing people to jump in and create change at a time and pace that works for them. This opens up more opportunities for people who might not have had access beforehand. Block Drops allow people to actively clean their communities and set an example for environmental stewardship.
If you would like to learn more about climate change and how to take action on protecting the environment, visit Brightmark’s resources page. Remember—change starts with you.
