flip flop and cig butt

Walks around the neighborhood with Homer are yielding the same old litter – fast food bags, big plastic cups with blue lids, cans, cig butts – the usual. Today, we spotted this lonesome flip flop. Lodged in the grate – what you cannot see – is a big plastic cup. All these things are waiting to get washed down with the next rain and will wind up in the stream. What’s a girl to do?

Today, I completed my first duathlon. While running and biking throughout the course, I was very disappointed to see the many littered energy gel packets on both the run and bike routes. The bike route was a 20 mile ride through the beautiful Kansas countryside on the outskirts of Topeka. While I enjoyed the ride, I was irritated every time I saw a littered packet. I must have seen at least 50 of them throughout the ride. It’s really unnecessary.

Recently, a friend of mine told me about a group called Trash Runners. Currently, there are groups in Maine, Chicago and Washington D.C. They run and pick up trash at the same time and also organize groups to run and pick up trash after participants in sponsored races. It’s pretty cool. Check it out if you’re interested in starting your own chapter. And all you hammerheads out there – QUIT LITTERING YOUR GEL PAKS!

A high school friend of mine brought a new/old litter combat campaign to my attention recently.  Litter campaigns have been going on since the early 1970s here AND in Britain. Check out this video clip from 1973 from the New Seekers and this recent article on how Scunthorpe College in Great Britain is looking to combat litter on its campus.

very large boot

Greetings from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Took a minute to wander around downtown and was happy to see very little litter within a four block radius of the capitol. It’s very windy here and I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t more trash blowing around. Overall, it’s pretty clean here. Found a few items, so here they are.

plastic strapping wrap

This was the first piece of litter I spotted after walking  a few blocks.  It’s that hard plastic strapping wrap.

styrofoam cup

This is the next piece of litter I spotted. It’s a half filled styrofoam drink cup that was placed on this metal plate on the capitol grounds. It was the only piece of litter in sight.

gum

One block over, I spotted this piece of chewing gum on the sidewalk near the entrance of the Wyoming state museum. As I’ve said before, I typically pick up the litter I photograph, but I draw the line at gum – ICK!

wendys bag

One more block away, spotted a crumpled fast food bag (note cig butt and plastic bottle cap ring in upper right hand corner).

plastic bottle

On the next and final block, a plastic soda bottle lies on the grass of a bank.

mccrap

Yesterday, the Kansas City Star did an article about the lifespan of litter. They did a walk in a park, picked up litter, photographed it and showed the life span of each piece. One of the items, which I have photographed many times for this blog, was a red straw. Said straw takes 450 years to decompose.  I’m glad The Star did this article and I’m also happy to see a few litter related letters to the editor were recently published in The Star. I’m not so glad about people who litter. Why don’t they get it??

A message to litterers: THE WORLD IS NOT YOUR TRASH CAN!

red straw

bosque trail head

This sign also needs to include the words, “PLEASE CLEAN UP AFTER YOUR SELF.”

On a recent trip to New Mexico, I was struck by the amount of litter hung up in the tumbleweeds. The land is pretty open there so litter blows freely along with the tumbleweeds. It gets hung up along fence rows and among the cacti.

My sister and I walked the bosque a few times. This is where she takes frequent walks with her dog, Blue. My brother-in-law made her a very clever walking stick with a retractable sharp metal poker on the end. She uses this to pick up litter. I’ve asked him to make one for me. Below follows a sampling of the litter I spotted…oh, and a picture of Blue.

litter on a stick

A sampling of litter picked up on a typical walk on the bosque using my sister’s special walking stick.

wrapper in willows

A wrapper among the willows.

litter in rio grande

cup in rio grande

bottle on the bosque

blue plastic

slotted spoon on bosque

plastic bottle on bosque

broken plastic cup

chip bag in cactus

Spotted this in the parking lot at my dad’s place.

pizza box on a hill

Plenty of litter around my niece’s practice soccer field.

litter in bushes

can in hand

My sister picks up a can in the stands of the soccer practice field.

candy wrapper

litter in parking lot

Litter and tumbleweed gathered by the curb near the restaurant where we ate.

ice cream sampler

An ice cream sampler sits atop a wall on the plaza in Santa Fe. (This goes in the “putting litter where one darned well pleases” category.)

Blue

Blue is the sweetest desert dog.

paper bag

It looks like this person did. Please read on.

According to Keep Kansas City Beautiful, 54% of litter is deliberate and 44% is accidental.  On my daily afternoon walk with Homer today, I found this fast food bag and a discarded prescription refill bag along with the prescription receipt in the middle of the street several blocks from our house. I can’t believe that someone would be so stupid as to throw this very personal information out the window, especially in this day of identity theft. I wanted to give the ‘owner’ the benefit of the doubt and thought that MAYBE it fell out of the garbage truck. However, after taking a closer look at the receipts, it looks like the person chowed down on a cheeseburger at 4:23 p.m., then picked up their script at 4:30 p.m. Homer and I were in the area where we found the litter at about 5:00 p.m., so we just missed them. Of course, someone else may have been sent on this errand and discarded it inappropriately. Regardless, I packaged it all up and sent it to the owner, since it had the name, address AND refill number printed for all to see, and thought he’d want it back.

As I’ve said countless times before, it’s always interesting what I find while walking Homer. But, it looks like he’s going to ‘have it his way’ tonight.

found litter 3-29-10

cialis script

litter receipt

five dollar bill

It had been a relatively light litter walk this evening with Homer. Picked up a soda can and two AA batteries – even found a $5 bill! (Is that considered litter??). So, Homer and I are strolling along enjoying a beautiful sunny afternoon walk. As we turned the block to head home, we spotted a small batch of litter – right by a grate – less than a half a block from our house. I call it Fast Food Mayhem.

On a positive note, finding the $5 brings my litter fund to a grand total of $27.30, which includes the recycled cans from January and other coins picked up along the way on our walks. The fund may be small, but it IS growing. For what yet, I don’t know. But stay tuned…

fast food mayhem litter

EVIE book cover (image useage granted by Susan Harp)

I found out about EVIE and her owner, Susan Harp, through Keep America Beautiful. EVIE is short for ‘Every Volunteer Is Essential’ and her mission is “keeping the earth looking good in addition to spreading the word.” Susan and EVIE have been doing great things with litter prevention in their town of Evansville, Indiana. I was excited to find out about them and to receive this book in the mail yesterday. It’s quite cute and a great teaching tool for kids. They’re also being featured in an upcoming interactive web page through WNIN, Evansville’s local PBS station. It’s been great connecting with like minded people and learning about the great work they do. Click on the photo above to check out EVIE’s Facebook page and become her friend.

Now, on to ‘more of the same.’ As you’ll recall in my last post, Sunday I found a large white trash bag filled with 53 beer cans. Well, yesterday on my walk with Homer, we spotted another similar batch of litter a few blocks to the north of our house. This time it was 19 beer cans and 1 beer bottle. Looks like someone’s been having a good time in the hood. At least they kept the litter contained in a bag, but they’re still morons for littering!

beer can litter

Here’s the approach to the beer can litter. At least most of the cans made it in the bag.

beer can litter

beer cans

blue jay

On this first day of spring, I looked out my window and saw this blue jay in the lilac bush. As you can see, we had more snow – around ten inches – and the second KC Litter Index was canceled. The litter is still out there waiting to be indexed and waiting to be picked up. It’s just buried under a new cover of snow for now. But that doesn’t stop me from doing my own little litter index in my neighborhood.

Homer and I headed out for a nice long walk. I have to say that I’m always astounded at what I find. It doesn’t matter what route I take, there’s always some kind of litter story just waiting to be told.

As we approached an intersection a few blocks away (where the nicer houses are) there was a white garbage bag filled with beer cans. Next to it, were two empty 12-pack containers. I shook my head, but was glad that at least all 53 cans (1 vodka bottle and 35 cents) – yes I said 53 cans – were inside the bag instead of on the ground.

So, going back to my point about themes, this one is about blue – blue jays and blue beer cans. Merry spring.

beer cans in the snow

Bag ‘o beer cans (plus 1 vodka bottle and 35 cents) sit on the corner a few blocks from my house.

beer cans

Here are the contents of the trash bag left on the corner in the snow. There are a total of 53 beer cans, 1 vodka bottle and 35 cents.