The other day, I was out for a walk and noticed that someone had been picking up trash along the small back road where I was strolling. They’d left bags of litter every so often along the way, plus small neat piles of bottles and cans. Later, I guess, they’d come back with a vehicle and pick everything up. (Unless it was really an art project meant to point out the quantity of litter but not actually remove it.)
This good deed inspired me to emulate it. Our road gets plenty of litter too, and I thought I’d at least start by cleaning up our own property where it runs along the road. Out the door I went with a couple of plastic bags.
In no time at all, they were full. Luckily, one of the pieces of litter I found was a third plastic bag, because I then filled that one too. Trash adds up fast: This was a stretch of road maybe a few hundred feet long, and not even very well traveled.
I found some notable items: an oil filter, a grocery store flier addressed to someone in Stuarts Draft, and a big piece of twisted metal that must have come off a car door. But the vast majority of the trash consisted of drink containers, from Pepsi to some sort of tequila-inspired, beer-plus-artificial-flavoring concoction.
So everybody’s buying individually packaged drinks and tossing them out the car window when they’re done. I like me a cream soda now and then like anybody else (or a nice porter when I’m not driving) but this is not good. Down with bottles and cans! Up with canteens!
What’s the most interesting piece of litter you’ve ever found? Any die-hard adopt-a-highway people want to chime in?