‘I got a self-taught PhD in garbology’: B.C. man reconnects with childhood passion for picking up litter

Adam introduces us to a self-taught garbologist and finds out where his drive for keeping the beach clean comes from.

VANCOUVER — If you asked Michael Dowling what he wanted to be when he grew up when he was in Grade 2, he might have shown you his manifesto.

“It said, ‘When I grow-up I want to live in the woods with the bears,’” Michael smiles.

He wrote about the importance of protecting the natural world, before picking up litter around his neighbourhood in a little red wagon.

“It was like out of a Norman Rockwell painting,” Michael says. “I had my own little private dump behind our house.”

The self-described “nature boy” volunteered at the aquarium, before pursuing marine biology in university.

“And then I thought, ‘I don’t want to be a scientist begging for grants,’” Michael says. “So, I ended up taking a marketing management course.”

While Micheal ended up achieving big professional gains in real estate and the stock market, he also suffered even greater personal losses while partying.

“Alcohol took me down a very dark path very quick,” Michael says. “I didn’t think I was going to live past 29. I thought I wasn’t going to get a three in my age.”

So, he got help, did the work to get sober, and started thinking about the idealistic boy he once was.

“I really need to dedicate myself to humble work,” Michael says.

So, after noticing a piece of garbage on the beach one day, Michael decided to pick it up.

“Every clean beach starts with someone picking up one piece,” Michael says as he walks along the shoreline searching garbage. “It’s such an incredible, Zen-like thing.”

Now, Michael spends at least 10 hours a week, using a recycled bag and a garbage picker, to collect countless pieces of litter.

“I’m a garbologist! I got a self-taught PhD in garbology!” Michael laughs. “I got it down to a science!”

And now that he’s set to celebrate 26 years of sobriety by doing this in his “happy place,” if you ask Michael what he wants to do now that he’s grown up, he’ll say this.

“It’s priceless! Adopt your block. Adopt your beach. Just try it! It’s my call to action!,” Michael smiles. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world!”