Picking Up Trash

Hello,

I know several people who frequently pick up trash, some every time they walk. I generally look at it, sigh, and wish people were not so quick to throw things down.

This morning as Leroy and I headed to church, I saw a plastic grocery type bag stuck in a bush. “No time like the present to pick up trash,” I thought as I snagged it.

I did not pick anything thing up on the way because Leroy was in a rush to get there to vote and then go to work. I was just going to vote and the trash would still be there on the way home. Before we got to church I stepped on another bag blowing past. The return street I walked on seemed not to have too much trash, but by the time I had covered four blocks I had one full bag that I was able to stuff in an almost full trash bin. If there were a receptacle on every corner would the neighborhood look different? Perhaps people would be neater if it did not take so much effort.

Another bag was in my area and I grabbed that one too. Across the street from me a person from Coe College was picking up trash, he however was not walking, but sitting on a small lawn tractor and using a grabber to snag the items. I found a cardboard box that was larger than I wanted to carry so I took it over to him and asked if I could add it to his pile. With a smile he said, “Yes!” I then asked if I could empty one of my bags in his large bin. I got to do that too. In the end I filled two more bags before I got home. I feel that mile is a little cleaner than when I started.

It is so easy to complain, even if only in my head, about the trash, but much more energetic and difficult to be a part of the solution.

Paula