[at-l] LITTER

[ellen at clinic.net (Bob C)]

Ah. Litter! Americans fundamentally are slobs. It's part of our culture. We took a wild continent and trashed it. We've evolved into neatniks at home. Slobs in public. I have an older brother who can't stand clutter and trash. His cars are spotless. His house is spotless. He's appalled at my cluttered home; papers from projects, books, hiking gear piled everywhere. 

His house isn't like that. His house is spotless. He has no papers, no gear lying around. He has no papers, no books, no gear -- well, there are his several snowmobiles. But certainly no trash. The garbage man comes several times a week. Stuff in his car goes out the window. I gave up decades ago trying to convince him not to do that. It's a compromise. He still tosses trash. Just not when I'm looking.

I'm encouraged that trails remain pretty clean. Our town land trust trails rarely have more than a gum or a candy wrapper on them. 

The parking lots are a different story. Several use them for lunch breaks and "lovers lane" parking. I regularly pick up trash. Trash breeds trash. Even the parking lots stay clean if I keep every scrap picked up. If I forget for more than a day or two, the trash begins to build.

ATVs and snowmobiles are also a different story.

Wherever the machines go, litter, paper, cans, and bottles accumulate. Just dumping a bottle is never enough for a machine rider. They have to break their bottles over the nearest rock. One bit of litter per bottle is never enough. The more shards of glass the better.

Hunters and fishermen are almost as bad. A few backpackers are equally bad. But most backpackers at least keep the trails clean. They weaken -- there eyes glisten -- when they approach a fire place where a week's accumulation of soggy food scraps, they think, can be harmlessly disposed. 

Weary

> ------------Original Message------------
> From: Robert <infinity1plus1@yahoo.com>
> To: "at-l@mailman.backcountry.net" <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Date: Mon, Jun-27-2005 4:55 PM
> Subject: [at-l] LITTER
> 
> I began reflecting on my day today upon reading in Ready's trail 
> journal the quote, "Imagine if everyone picked up just one piece of litter 
> every day." I picked up approximately 22. I was down at the end of my 
> driveway and someone had thrown what appeared to be a small trash bag 
> worth of garbage onto it. Picking up the trash, I remember thinking what an 
> annoyance it was. Go figure. Later, I went to the high school where i 
> found 2 plastic coffee cups just sitting on the ground as I got out of 
> my car. I went to the post office and it seemed that one of the coffee 
> cups had followed me. Coming back from the post office, I found an 
> actual bag of trash at the intersection I pass through just before getting 
> to my house. Maybe it was the same moron dumping trash on my driveway. I 
> picked all of this stuff up as I normally do. The bag was the worst as 
> it was a bit slimey and i had to put it in my just cleaned car. The 
> thing is that I was certainly not the first person to see the garbag
>  e
>  everywhere, just the only one to pick it up. I've noticed that I 
> rarely go out without picking up some trash somewhere. I keep my eyes open 
> and will go out of my way to pick things up and put them in the proper 
> receptacle. Yes, I even recycle what can be recycled. The point is that 
> I rarely go out without finding something. This makes me wonder, do you 
> all find things like this in your day? I realize this particular day 
> was extreme, but not as rare as one might think. I would say that if you 
> came home without picking up a piece of trash, and your address isn't 
> somewhere in Shangri-la, that you need to go back out and find one 
> before laying yourself down to rest. Honestly, if we all just paid attention 
> and grabbed the offending matter that all would inevitably find, the 
> problem would be greatly alleviated. Just a thought.
>  
>       -Robert
>  
> "Be the change you wish to see in the world..." --Ghandi
> 
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