Pick Up Your Gift Cards

Don't accept that you can't make a difference. Because if you can't make a difference, you won't make a difference, and if you put a multiplier on that we will continue on an unsustainable pathway. ~Maurice Strong, Canadian Businessman and Environmentalist

Here’s Sunday’s Inspirational Quote, once again on Monday. I’m still caught up in the excitement of outlining a new book, so time passes without me even noticing, and things that need to get done don’t. For instance, the other day, I didn’t realize it, because my thoughts were pretty much elsewhere, as usual, but I was running around town on empty. Luckily, I managed to get all my errands done, and then it was time to go to the Y. I don’t usually take my purse to the Y, because it’s just down the street, and as I was coming home, the low fuel light came on in the car. Knowing I had just spent the morning driving across town and back, and belatedly remembering my gas gauge had been on empty the day before, I said a quick prayer of thanks for not running out of gas earlier, and immediately headed for the nearest gas station.

Unfortunately, when I got there, I remembered I didn’t have my purse, and had to do the car floor scramble for loose change to see what I could come up with. I managed to find 90 cents, which at less that $2 a gallon would at least get me home to my purse and back. I’m not sure that would have been the case had gas been $4 a gallon, so again I was grateful—this time for the lower price of gas.

As I stepped out of the car to gas up, I spotted a gas station gift card on the ground and thought—could it be? Is someone up there looking out for me?

Since I’d never used a gift card before, I decided I’d be better off using my 90 cents for now, so I tucked the gift card away, put in my 90 cents worth of gas, then went home to get my purse. Upon returning to the gas station, while I was waiting for my tank to fill up, I noticed more gift cards on the ground.

Suddenly I realized what was happening. People are discarding their gift cards after using them.

Slowly I turned around in a circle, and without moving from my pump, one of eight at the station, counted 27 gift cards on the ground. I’m sure if I’d walked around, I’d have found many more.

My question is: who picks up all these discarded cards? Somebody has to. I mean, at even 27 cards tossed aside a day, at the end of a year, that’s nearly 10,000 gift cards discarded in the gas station parking lot.

Trash cans are provided at all pumps. How hard can it be to toss your used card into one?