This weekend, while I was out walking around looking at birds, I was also looking at garbage. And picking it up. Without wandering from my path very far, I picked up two bags full of stuff, mostly drink cans and plastic bottles, and a big (almost basketball sized) piece of styrofoam. I put the stuff in the back of my Bardiacwagon and put it in the recycling bin at home.
I could have filled up my wagon completely if I'd put some effort in. (Maybe I should take to bringing big garbage sacks with me? I just used the plastic grocery bags I was picking up.)
The worst was the shotgun shells. It's public land, and for some reason, that seems to mean that some people need to go shoot and leave their little plastic cartridge things and the full of holes cans and jugs.
At one point, I wanted to walk in this one area again, an area at the end of a little dirt road with a turn around space and a trail leading out, but when I got there the second time, there were two white guys with large crossbows and bows. Now, yes, I could have gotten out and started walking, but I just don't feel like that's a good idea if people are shooting stuff. I don't trust that they're going to be super careful. (Especially given the number of beer cans I'd been picking up there earlier.) So I kept driving.
Does it seem like we've gone back on the upswing from, say, the late 70s, in terms of garbage just being on the side of the road and stuff? Or is it just that there are more people? Or am I noticing it more? Or are the plastic bags used so often for groceries just so much more visible? Or is it where I am?
I need to take a walk in the greenspace behind my house to collect the garbage there again. I think mostly if floats over from the freeway, because people are careless or just toss stuff.
I think it depends on the area and what it's used for but yes, I think there's way more garbage flying around than there was. Or I'm noticing it more. Or there's more people. But I'm with you in the ducking for cover and taking garbage bags wherever I go.
ReplyDeleteYou could become the next David Sedaris; that's what he started doing once he got the FitBit.
ReplyDeleteOh, was he picking up garbage? Well then, there I go!
ReplyDeleteIt absolutely steams me how much trash people drop in really beautiful places like state parks but also how often they'll throw their beer cans and fast-food containers out of their cars. I could pick up bags of trash every time I go out for a walk. I understand that some people consider the entire world their own personal landfill, but what makes them think the rest of us want to live with their trash?
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