Today being a holiday, I decided to do what I always do on Earth Day - clean up some trash. It never ceases to amaze and disgust me how dirty humans can be, and lately the spillway beside our home has been bothering me.....this pretty little stream which is suburban habitat for Red Wing Blackbirds, Muskrat, Frogs and many other wild creatures is also filled with garbage......or at least it was until I got busy.......
I'm not sure why there is a chair in there......who throws a perfectly good desk chair into a stream? In addition to furniture there were numerous plastic bottles. Yes, some were some water bottles but many more were soft or milk drink bottles and fruit or energy drinks. Because of this I'm not sure why everyone is so down on JUST the plastic water bottle, but if anyone can explain it I'd be glad to listen!
This pond is a big attractant for the neighbourhood children, as any body of water usually is. But it makes me kind of sad to see how much trash they seem to generate. Sandals, singly or in pairs, plastic toys and food wrappers are commonly left behind after their play sessions.
The factory across the street is also responsible for a big portion of the garbage I picked up today. I gathered up lots of foam packing, plastic strapping, and case-lot labels clearly identifying a certain factory as the culprit.......as much as I am glad there is still SOME industry in the area employing people, I wish this particular facility could be a bit more environmentally conscious.
Despite tripping and falling face-first into the stream and filling my boots with water, I managed to fill a 35 x 50 size garbage bag with trash.
And if you're at all interested in seeing yours truly rooting through this bag and displaying the various odd items I picked up, click this link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oebGwsFp3z0
Wondering....what up with all the Navy League of Canada stuff......?
Fast food and coffee establishments were responsible for a good half of this mess....every one of them within a 50 kilometre radius was well represented. And why does everything have to be so over-packaged these days? Those little foil juice bags with the included straws were everywhere......just finish your drink and toss the empty container aside seems to be the mindset for many if not most.
The rest was soggy newspapers (I'm guessing most of them from a local child who throws the bundle of papers he's supposed to be delivering to people into the field on the other side of the spillway...it's been witnessed), and miscellaneous shreds of plastic and stuff I couldn't even put a name to.
Then came sorting.......it bothered me to think of all that plastic just ending up in a landfill. The end result was two smallish bags of recyclables and one large bag of garbage. And of course one pair of extremely wet boots and two pairs of soggy gloves! AND most importantly the satisfaction of looking into the spillway and seeing it trash-free, at least for now.
