Sunday was pretty crappy weather here. In fact thinking back Earth Day is never good weather for us! There was a small window of time where the clouds parted, the rain stopped and we were able to get out for a walk to pick up garbage.
At first I thought we weren't going to find very much. The path behind our house had barely any garbage! But as we got closer to the new home construction area the amount of garbage increased. I expected this. What I did not expect was what we found. Yes there was the typical construction debris - plastic wrap, styrofoam insulation, pieces of wood etc but there was also the annoying shit like water bottles. Who is still drinking bottled water these days??? And who is ditching it on a walking path???
My anger intensified when we found this.
See those 2 things I have circled? Those are full bundles of newspapers that some asshat dumped in the woods instead of delivering them. There was 3 of these in the same area. I need to go back and get an up close picture (my battery died after I took this picture) and then email it to the newspaper.
I was only able to carry 2 large reusable shopping bags with us but we stuffed as much as we could into them. B was my lookout and pointed out all the best garbage for me to pick up. I think a lot of times the garbage is from the wind. I really want to
believe that this much garbage is not from people actively choosing to
litter. Lately it has been really windy the night before or the day of
garbage pickup so I believe that could explain some of the trash that we
found that is closer to the homes. There are many ways to prevent your
recycling from blowing away and becoming litter.
* Don't put it out at the curb the night before pickup
* Stack your aluminum/glass/plastic blue box on top of your paper blue box
* Weigh down your blue boxes with heavier objects on top
* Don't overfill your blue box. If you need to get a 2nd/3rd/4th box then do it!
* Look at what you are buying and cut back on items with lots of packaging
This is what we found (you can find the pictures on Facebook): 7 pop cans, 2 plastic cups, 2 plastic lids, 1 apple sauce container, 6 water bottles, 3 drink boxes, 6 scraps of paper, 5 coffee cups, 3 pieces of cardboard, 2 poop bags (why on earth did I pick these up?? I didn't know they were poop but still!), 5 pieces of styrofoam, 9 plastic bags (some very large) AND 1 bundle of junk mail.
Oh hi things that should never have been printed in the first place.
What were you doing in the forest?
Now this is ironic
Guess who is going to get a nice Tweet and email from me?
Update - I tweeted Rogers about this and they responded asking for the details (location etc) so they can figure out who should have delivered these mailers. They are just as pissed as I am.
Being Present in Nature
Mommy, what did trees look like?
Beyond Junk Mail
I think it's great that you contacted those companies. They spend money on mailers and someone dumps them in a field. Great article
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