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Woman picks up 217,286 pieces of litter and films every single one of them.

She's on her way to 1 million.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Did you know that littering is bad? Of course you did! We all do. But people still do it every day on an incalculable scale, and it might have something to do with the fact that we rarely stop to think about whylittering is actually so bad for the Earth. Sure, it looks gross, but does it actually hurt anything?

The answer is, of course, Yes. Chemicals and microplastics in pieces of trash don't just stay there, they inevitably make their way into our soil, into our waterways, and even into our food. It can also spread disease and kill wildlife.

Look, I get it. Pollution is an overwhelming idea. When you see giant piles of garbage covering the streets, and you think how big the world is, it feels like there's no way to make a difference. Is picking up one piece of trash going to matter? How about ten? A hundred? A million?

This is the exact question behind one 30-year-old woman's quest to make a difference. Emily started a campaign called Million Little Pieces, and is documenting her journey on TikTok as she works to pick up one million individual pieces of litter. It sounds like a lofty and impossible goal, but as of this writing, she's already well over 200,000 and counting.

In January of 2024, Emily was in a car crash that left her with a spine injury. She wanted to get in better shape after and began walking as part of her rehab, but as she walked, she noticed just a ton of garbage everywhere she went. She was disheartened to say the least. That's where Emily came up with the idea to pick up all the litter she could find along the way, ultimately settling on a goal of one million pieces.

In one recent video, she hits 217,286 after 233 straight days of picking up trash. The dedication is absolutely amazing to watch!


@millionlittlepieces

12/21/24 Day 233 of collecting one million pieces of #litter. Daily total: 753 Grand total: 217,668 Follow me please 💕🧍‍♀️ Go check out StopLittering.com and use my code 0efg9b4Z 🫶🏻🌎 #earthdayeveryday #cleantheworld #fightpollution #bethechangeyouwishtosee #millionlittlepieces #millionactsoflove #millionchallenge #cleaningchallenge #litter #trash #rubbish #waste #globalmovement #bekindtotheworld #onepieceatatime #landfills #recycle #dobetter #mothernature #theworldisdying #christmas #newyear #thankyou



Sadly, litter is easy to find for Emily and the Million Little Pieces project. She finds anywhere from 500 to 2000 or more pieces a day just on walks through local parks and neighborhoods.

The worst offenders are aluminum cans and, not surprisingly, cigarette butts — which just so happen to be one of the most destructive forms of littering around

Not everything she finds is trash, however! Outside of obviously recyclable items, she finds lots of things that can be washed or otherwise cleaned up and donated, like old clothing and sports equipment. She finds tons of tennis balls and hands them over to a local dog shelter.

And, of course, there's the money! (Though it takes a while to add up. By day 100 she'd found a total of around five dollars.)

@millionlittlepieces

Replying to @swagballs69 I literally found a quarter right after filming this video 💰 100 days of picking up trash, 102,709 pieces collected, $5.49 found! #cleantheplanet #quitlitterin #stoplittering #cleaning #recycle #earthdayeveryday #nature #parks #florida #trash #garbage #environment #litteringistrashy #fypage #fyp #cleantok #treasure

One of the best things to come out of the Million Little Pieces project, besides a cleaner planet, is the way it's inspiring others.

Commenters mention constantly how much they admire the work Emily is doing, and so many of them have begun picking up trash in their own neighborhoods. She even encourages people to send in their own counts for a little competition! Emily also offers tips for how to get started for people who are interested in following her lead.

"I love this! I just bought a grabber," wrote one commenter on an early video.

Viewers who can't help themselves will cheer Emily on, donate to her cause, or buy her new litter-picking gear from her Amazon wishlist.

They say one of the main reasons people litter is because there's already litter present in the area. What can it hurt to toss a cup or a cigarette butt onto an already substantial pile of trash?

That's not the kind of thinking we need. If you've ever heard of the Shopping Cart Theory, it states that whether you return your shopping cart to the proper area is a good judge of your integrity. It takes effort to do and you gain nothing personally by doing it, and there are also no consequences for not doing it. So the question is, do you care about the next person that comes along, do you care about the community? Emily likens littering to the shopping cart conundrum. You don't have to spend an entire year picking up hundreds of thousands of pieces of trash, all you really have to do to make a difference is walk the extra couple of steps to find a trash can, recycling bin, or ash tray. After watching Emily's videos, you'll definitely be inspired to put in the extra effort!

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Joy

Security cam captures assistant principal and student's joyful mutual birthday celebration

"Love is the curriculum," says Assistant Principal Ford.

Arnold Ford/Instagram

Arnold Ford shares a birthday—and birthday joy—with one of his students.

When Arnold Ford went to work on his birthday in February of 2024, he knew he was in for a treat. One of his students, a girl named Cali, has the same birthday as he does, and Ford was ready. As soon as he saw Cali come bounding down the hallway with her arms spread wide, the assistant principal tossed his backpack aside, swooped the girl up and spun her around in joyful celebration.

Then the two raced down the hallway, arm in arm, so Cali could give him a balloon and a cupcake she had saved for him. All of this was captured on the security cameras at west Philadelphia's Mastery Charter School, Mann Elementary, and the footage has people cheering for amazing educators.

"I’m so grateful to God for allowing me to see another year," Ford wrote when he shared the video on his Instagram page. "I’m even more grateful that LOVE continues to be the centerpiece of my entire life."

"And… as you can see… I’m also grateful that I get to share a birthday with one of my favorite students," he continued. "And yes… she brought me a balloon and a cupcake, and in exchange, I told her she could dress down today. Fair trade if you ask me!

Watch:

People are gushing over the exchange in the comments.

"Do y'all teach 25th grade!? I need an elementary school experience do-over!" wrote one person.

"Bro my own parents never been that happy to see me 😭," wrote another.

"Can you imagine marinating in that love on a daily basis? What a gift this man is!" shared another.

Several people pointed out that no one else in the video so much as blinked, which is a testament to the fact that this wasn't out of the ordinary. Clearly, Mr. Ford brings this energy to work every day.

"I think it’s important for us to celebrate WITH our students and families," Ford tells Upworthy. "[Cali's] birthday is a big deal to her, and so is mine. We talk about it ALL year. So when that day came, what you saw was just a natural, genuine reaction that we both had. She was excited to be celebrating me, and I was excited to be celebrating her."

Educators like Ford can make such an enormous difference in children's lives, transforming a school into a place filled with positive interactions where kids know people genuinely care about and enjoy being around them. That's what Ford loves about his job as well.

"It really is the reciprocal nature of the work," he tells Upworthy. "We get so much more than we ever put out. Love. Joy. Laughter. The more we sow those things, we see them return exponentially in this work. That’s why when I often say 'Love is the curriculum,' it’s because I recognize how blessed I am to be able to put positivity and joy at the center of my experience with them. It’s humbling."

"In other words, I love that I don’t have to wait until Fridays to get paid." he adds.

Here's to Mr. Ford and all of the dedicated, incredible educators out there who pour their love into helping children learn and grow and thrive. They really do deserve all the balloons and cupcakes—and all the pay raises as well.

You can follow Arnold Ford on Instagram.


This article originally appeared in April.

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Heroes

People rally around an honest teen who went out of his way to return a woman's missing purse

He didn't ask for a reward, but he's getting a big one.

via GoFundMe

Ring footage shows Adrian Rodriguez returning a lost purse.

At Upworthy, we are always looking to share the best of humanity and there are few things that reveal someone’s good character quite like when they do good when no one is watching. A recent story from Chula Vista, California, celebrates a teenager who went out of his way to return a woman’s lost purse.

According to NBC News San Diego, Eliana Martin was shopping at Ralph’s supermarket when she accidentally left her purse in a shopping cart in the parking lot. After she left the store, she realized she had lost her purse and began frantically canceling her credit cards. Shortly after Martin left the parking lot, a recent high school graduate, Adrian Rodriquez, 17, found her purse in the cart. Rodriguez searched the purse to look for an identification card to find where she lived so he could return it to her. He then drove over to the address on the identification card, where Melina Marquez, Martin's former roommate, currently lives.

Marquez wasn’t home so Rodriguez left the purse with a relative. Marquez later saw video of the drop-off on the family’s Ring doorbell camera.

“I looked into the Ring camera, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. He’s such a young kid.’ I was like, ‘We need to find him and just give him a little piece of gratitude.’” Marquez told NBC San Diego.

Even though Rodriguez didn’t expect anything for doing the right thing, Marquez believes that he should be rewarded for his actions. So she organized a GoFundMe campaign that has raised nearly $5,000 for the 17-year-old.

“We think he deserved a great compensation and since a lot of people wanted to help for his good actions here we are,” she wrote on the campaign’s website. For Marquez, Rodriguez’s good deed was about more than just returning a purse.

“He was raise [sic] by amazing parents and this needs to be told,” she added. “Gives me hope for our next generation and also never judge a book by its cover.”

While the story of Rodriguez returning the purse is heartwarming, it isn’t all that rare. A groundbreaking 2019 study conducted in Europe found that when people find a lost wallet, they are more likely to return it if it contains money. Further, the more money in the wallet, the more likely it’ll be returned.

Researchers believe that people are more likely to turn in wallets containing money because they believe that it’s wrong to steal. "The more money wallet contains, the more people say that it would feel like stealing if they do not return the wallet,” Alain Cohn, the study’s lead author from the University of Michigan, told NPR.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Mental Health

Quick thinking waitress had a gut feeling a boy was being abused. So she gave him a sign.

She's a hero.

via WFTV

Server Flavaine Carvalho was waiting on her last table of the night at Mrs. Potatohead's, a family restaurant in Orlando, Florida when she noticed something peculiar. The parents of an 11-year-old boy were ordering food but told her that the child would be having his dinner later that night at home. She glanced at the boy who was wearing a hoodie, glasses, and a face mask and noticed a scratch between his eyes.

A closer look revealed a bruise on his temple.

So Carvalho walked away from the table and wrote a note that said, "Do you need help?" and showed it to the boy from an angle where his parents couldn't see.

Mr.s Potatohead's in Orlando, Florida

The boy shook his head, no. "I knew it that he was afraid," she said.

Carvalho made two more attempts until the boy nodded yes.

The server then called the owner of the restaurant to let her know that she was going to call the police on the boy's parents.

“SEE SOMETHING SAY SOMETHING: An Orlando waitress saw a family withholding food from a boy at a table. She noticed bruises on his body and created this sign to secretly ask the child if he needed help. When he signaled "Yes" she called us. The stepfather & mother were arrested.”

The police arrived and arrested the boy's father

on one count of third-degree child abuse. His mother Kristen Swann was arrested with two counts of child neglect. A four-year-old girl was taken from the family by authorities. They say she showed no signs of abuse.

Detectives spoke with the boy and learned his parents frequently withheld food from him as a form of punishment. He was 20 pounds underweight. After searching his body, they discovered that he was nearly covered in bruises.

His father had recently beat him with a broomstick and back scratcher.

via Orlando PD

The boy told detectives that he was once hung upside down from his ankles in a door frame by his father and had been restrained by being strapped to a furniture dolly.

"To be honest what this child had gone through was torture," Detective Erin Lawler said. "There was no justification for it in any realm of the world. I'm a mother and seeing what that 11-year-old had to go through, it shocks your soul."

Carvalho's quick thinking and bravery may have saved the lives of two children.

"This could have been a homicide situation if she had not have intervened," Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said.

"The lesson here for all of us is to recognize when we see something that isn't right to act on it… This saved the life of a child," he added.

The restaurant's owner, Rafaela Cabede, hopes that Carvalho's bravery inspires others to look out for signs of abuse as well.

"We understand that this has to encourage other people that when you see something, say something," Cabede said. "We know when we see a situation that is wrong, we know what's the right thing to do. We know that speaking up is the right thing to do. But it takes more than acknowledging it. It takes courage.


This article originally appeared on 01.15.21

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