Litter Warrior vs Keyboard Warrior
My Year-Long Experiment with Single-Use Cups, Lids, and Straws by Jodi Tomchyshyn London
A little over a year ago, I started a year-long experiment to count the number of littered single-use drink cups, lids, and straws that I could collect in a 1.5 km radius walking loop, which I walk daily, near my home in Calgary.
For four years, I’ve been plalking – picking up litter while walking – with my sidekick, Riley the Sniffer Dog. Over time, more and more people have asked me about plalking. Some questions are hilarious: Why do I like garbage so much? Others are more thoughtful: How can I help?
Between my neighbour’s queries and a number of articles highlighting why people litter, I took to sharing the odd social media post with people in our community about my “litter warrior” work. I received a lot of encouragement and even some examples of joiners – people inspired to start their own plalking adventures. Then I ran into a “keyboard warrior”.
A few of the reasons people litter:
- Lacking pride in / connection to place.
- A belief that litter is ‘someone else’s problem.’
- The ‘tragedy of the commons’ (a throwback to Hardin’s 1968 masterpiece).
- The presence of litter making it psychologically more acceptable for others to litter.
This is the story of how Free Slurpee Day and a cantankerous meanie hiding behind his computer keyboard inspired me to tally every single-use cup, lid, straw and, for good measure, vape/cannabis package on my walk route for a year.
The story
Every July, 7-Eleven hosts Free Slurpee Day and, without fail, Slurpee-related litter multiplies. I thought I might be able to encourage people to choose a reusable cup, help with clean up, or maybe just use the available litter bins if they had a sense of the scale of litter waste from this one event. I made my post on social media.
Enter “keyboard warrior”: “So you picked up a few cups. Nobody cares. Shut up already.”
You might think it was the insult that got me. It wasn’t. It was the “few cups”. A few cups is three, maybe five if I’m being generous. But, it was a lot more than that, and it was more than just that one day.

Figure 1: Riley the Sniffer Dog – plalking assistant extraordinaire.
I could have replied to the cantankerous meanie right then and there but I’m a patient woman with a hankering for data collection. I also have a secret weapon: an even more patient husband. The relevance of the latter? I decided to save every drink cup, lid, straw and, for interest’s sake, vape/cannabis package that I picked up while plalking and store them in our shared garage for an entire year. Then, at the end of the year, after my husband and his car generously shared their space with my litter haul, my husband would also generously share his time to help me inventory everything I collected.
Would the results have any impact on the cantankerous meanie? Obviously not. But I now knew that a “litter warrior” should never appear to a duel unarmed. I would be ready for the next “keyboard warrior” and, more importantly, hopefully encourage a few walkers to become plalkers in the process.
The results
Between August 1, 2023, and July 31, 2024, in my little neighbourhood of Copperfield, I collected:
- 5269 – total drink items
- 1259 – drink cups
- 1472 – straws
- 1279 – lids.
Of these, 53% were 7-Eleven cups and 46% were identifiable as 7-Eleven straws — their happy swirl design is unmistakable. Next up were Tim Hortons cups, which made up 15% of the cups collected, and McDonald’s cups, which made up 10% of the cups collected.
The totals of all cup paraphernalia found can be seen in Table 1.
Note: I’m a scientist. You had to expect tables, right?
Second note: My totals do not include any partial cups, straws, or lids found, nor cup sleeves. Nor do they include any drink litter found by other fellow plalkers over the same time period. In other words, despite my best efforts, this still isn’t a full count of ‘all’ the drink paraphernalia littering the area over 12 months.
As for vape and cannabis litter over the same period, I collected, in decreasing volume:
- 64 – cannabis tubes
- 62 – disposable vape puffer and pen apparatuses
- 56– cannabis pouches
- 28 – cannabis ampoules for liquid
- 26 – cannabis miscellaneous packaging
- 22 – cannabis/vape standalone batteries.
The photographic evidence
You probably wish that I got a picture of my husband’s face when I told him that we were going to the local hockey rink to inventory my litter collection on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Instead, I’m happy to share evidence of my litter audit with you.











My Insights
So what did I learn? Obviously, it isn’t that I should refrain sharing my plalking results with strangers, because here we are. Instead:
- Canada-wide and global-wide, litter audits have long shown that disposable serviceware litter is ubiquitous. The results of my mini audit corroborate this.
- It may be time to stop calling these items ‘disposable serviceware’ and start calling them what they are: ‘litter ware’. These items are designed to be used ‘on the go’ and many people ‘on the go’ are not disposing them into a disposal stream; they are littering them into the environment as pollution and doing so in large numbers.
- There is a difference between a litter issue and a ‘lack of recycling opportunity issue’. Drink cups — well the clean ones anyway — are collected for recycling by the City of Calgary. Every one of those cups could have been brought home for recycling, but they weren’t.
- There is a dart board effect of litter disposition around a fast food outlet. In our community, 7-Eleven, which is the source of most of the litter collected, is the closest fast food venue to our community, being located approximately 190m the front door of our community centre. Tim Hortons, which is 950m away, was responsible for only 15% of the cups found.
Worth noting: While I was collecting drink cup litter, all manner of 7-Eleven litter was found from hot dog and pizza trays, to paper bags, to napkins, and more. My casual observation is that at least 75% of the litter that I collect every day is 7-Eleven sourced.
- It takes hundreds of hours of volunteer time to pick up litter disposed in communities, like mine, across Canada. At 30 minutes a day, my contribution was alone was 182.5 hours.
- Vape and cannabis litter are both prevalent in my little suburban community, and there are no opportunities to recycle them.
Also worth noting: While vape litter was a minor contributor by number of units compared to drink cup litter, unlike the drink cup litter (which was largely recyclable), the vape litter has no recycling outlet in Alberta despite its electronic and battery content. This material will continue to be unmanaged in Alberta post the expansion of the Alberta Recycling Management Authority’s e-waste recycling system and post the introduction of extended producer responsibility (EPR) for hazardous and special products (HSP) in Alberta, which are both occurring in early 2025. The Government of Alberta doesn’t consider vape materials to be either e-waste or HSP under Alberta law.
My call to action
I just finished my sixth and final year as an RCA Board Director. I’ve been proud to help the RCA as it has worked to instigate and advance waste minimization, recycling, and circular economy policy in Alberta and (with its partners) Canada-wide. It’s my hope that RCA Directors will continue to push forward as the change agents they are. If it could wave my magic wand and make my RCA wish come true, I would wish for the next RCA Board of Directors to advocate for:
- Managing litter better through EPR expansion. It’s a fact. Albertans are littering in significant quantities whether intentionally or unintentionally. The cost of litter cleanup should not be on the backs of volunteers. They should be internalized into the price of products and funded by EPR program operators. This is already happening in Europe. Alberta could be the first to lead the way in Canada. One opportunity would be to fund groups such as Beavers, Scouts, Girl Guides, 4-H Clubs, and other groups that are already undertaking volunteer cleanups.
- Adding disposable cups to Alberta’s deposit return system (DRS). Alberta’s DRS for beverage containers collects and diverts more than 80% of the containers supplied in Alberta each year. Placing a deposit on litter ware, such as disposable cups, could cut the amount of cups littered and encourage their collection and recycling. Note: Alberta’s DRS was first established as a litter control method in the 1970s and has been working ever since.
- Away-from-home recycling options that make-sense. Belgium has regulated both residential and commercial packaging recycling systems, which means they are collecting recyclables at streetscape, in parks, and in commercial establishments and then finding a way to sort and process them into high value commodity streams. Everywhere their citizens live, work, and play, they can recycle the same list of materials. In Alberta and Canada-wide, away-from-home recycling should be the norm, not the exception.
- A no straw future – with reusable straw exemptions for people with medical needs. Whether paper or plastic, straws get littered, and they cannot be recycled at-scale. Paper straws are now known to be covered in PFAS, a forever chemical that is no better for our environment than plastic straws. My wee audit shows that 7-Eleven straws are littered in large numbers. Across Alberta, despite federal regulations, plastic straws are once again being served at many restaurants. I’m not exactly sure when we as a society stopped having faith in our ability to use our lips to drink from a glass, but I am sure this is a hill society could climb.
- Making reusables universally present and easy to return for reuse. Imagine a future where each home has curbside collection of reusables, and where both disposal and recycling could be minimized. That would be a truly circular solution. The dream of ‘on the go’ reusables is growing globally, and Alberta could be a leader in this area if it started now.
Jodi Tomchyshyn London
Recycling Council of Alberta, Former Director 2018-2024
Passionate environmentalist, plalker, and anti-litter advocate
*Do you want to start plalking? Remember to ensure you have the proper safety equipment while picking up litter. Wear puncture-proof gloves or use a tool (like a garbage picker or tongs) to avoid touching items, wear glasses or eye protection, and dress for the conditions. Never pick up sharp items or items that you are not sure what they are.
Table 1: Results of drink cup matter audit.
Brand | Subtype | Count |
Cups | ||
7-11 | Slurpee_Blue (large) | 242 |
7-11 | Slurpee_Green | 165 |
7-11 | Big Gulp (medium) | 55 |
7-11 | Slurpee_Clear (large) | 44 |
7-11 | Slurpee_Blue (small) | 38 |
7-11 | Big Gulp (small) | 29 |
7-11 | Coffee (medium) | 26 |
7-11 | Big Gulp (large) | 23 |
7-11 | Coffee (small) | 22 |
7-11 | Iced Coffee (all) | 15 |
7-11 | Coffee (large) | 8 |
7-11 | Coffee (xlarge) | 6 |
Tim Hortons | Red Paper | 101 |
Tim Hortons | Clear Plastic | 58 |
Tim Hortons | White Paper | 24 |
McDonalds | paper cups | 102 |
McDonalds | plastic cups | 23 |
Starbucks | plastic cups | 35 |
Starbucks | paper cups | 18 |
Unbranded -other | all | 56 |
Circle K | all | 18 |
Wendy’s | all | 18 |
A&W | all | 16 |
Paper -shot cups | all | 16 |
Dairy Queen | all | 11 |
Solo | all | 11 |
Boba Vibes | all | 10 |
Pepsi | all | 9 |
Shell | all | 8 |
Booster Juice | all | 6 |
KFC | all | 6 |
Compostable | all | 5 |
Styrofoam | all | 4 |
Lemon Heaven | all | 4 |
Fatburger | all | 3 |
Peter’s Drive In | all | 3 |
Popeyes | all | 3 |
Louisiana Kitchen | all | 3 |
Subway | all | 2 |
Kone Ice | all | 2 |
Gong Cha | all | 2 |
Orange Julius | all | 1 |
Taco Bell | all | 1 |
Burger King | all | 1 |
Opa | all | 1 |
Five Guys | all | 1 |
Carl’s Junior | all | 1 |
Cineplex | all | 1 |
Quiznos | all | 1 |
Second Cup | all | 1 |
TOTAL CUPS | All brands | 1259 |
Straws | ||
7-11 | Yellow | 137 |
7-11 | Green | 127 |
7-11 | Red | 126 |
7-11 | Orange | 105 |
7-11 | Blue | 103 |
7-11 | Violet | 85 |
White paper | 499 | |
Coloured plastic | 113 | |
Clear plastic | 91 | |
Misc. (e.g., green Starbucks straws) | 86 | |
TOTAL STRAWS | All brands | 1472 |
TOTAL LIDS | All brands | 1279 |
TOTAL UNITS OF ALL DRINK LITTER | 5269 |