Clean up after yourself

Leave the World a Little Prettier

A messy problem

I'm not sure the fish like it here

Have you ever gone fishing or taken your kid to the park just to be tuned back by all the trash? It seems that some people think it is ok to litter since someone else will pick up after them. I’ve even been told once by an offender that they were creating jobs. But our natural resources are worth too much to take for granted this way. The truth is that in the state of North Carolina, where I live, there are only two government workers that are tasked with cleaning up the park systems from Fayetteville all the way to Wilmington. How often do you think they get to each park? The pictures in this post are all of a park near my home where I go fishing in the summer. They didn’t get around to it at all last year. Picking up after yourself might seem small in the scheme of things but when we don’t rely on the government to clean up after us we send a powerful message. When we clean up after ourselves we are saying through our actions that we don’t need as much control as they think. You might want to live in a nanny state, but on second thought you might not. The more dependent we are on the government the more control they will have on our lives. I for one want my son to grow up with the same if not higher level of freedom as I did.

What you can do about it

How many trash cans do you pass?

So what can you do about all the trash? For starts you can throw it away where it belongs. But that is only what’s expected. When you do take your child to the park try using other peoples litter problem as a way to teach them. Tell your children why we don’t litter. And if there is no trash receptacle carry it with you until you can get rid of it responsibly. But why not take it one step farther and leave the park a little cleaner than when you came. I always bring a plastic grocery bag with me for just that. Imagine if just one percent of our population picked up one piece of trash every day. That would be close to 400 thousand less coke cans, chip bags, beer bottles and fast food containers every day. That would mean 14.6 billion pieces of trash over the course of a year would not be contaminating our parks, streams and roadways.

How I tried to make a difference

Our children can't enjoy this park

Two summers ago my wife and I moved back to Fayetteville North Carolina for a job opportunity. I’ve taken to fishing quite a bit more in recent years and decided to look for a nice place where I could get away from it all from time to time. The first place I found was Lake Rim. When I pulled into a parking spot the first thing I say was that the locals thought this was a car wash. There were fast food bags and soda cans everywhere. I got out of the car and got my fishing gear thinking it can’t be that bad at the lake. I was wrong. The lake was even worse with broken beer bottles, tires, and used up bait containers just thrown everywhere. There was no way I could fish here. I started to get back in the car and drive off when something inside me snapped. Instead of going home I went to the park service building to complain. They agreed it was a problem but said it wasn’t their problem. So I asked whose problem it was. After much debate they pointed me in the right direction and I was off to the fish hatchery across the road. The guy in change of the fish hatchery said he wasn’t in charge of picking up trash either but that he could put me in contact with who was. We exchanged information and I went on my way. Several weeks later I went back to the hatchery to fallow up and was told there were only two people to clean all the parks in the aria and that they would get to it when they could. So I asked about putting together a group of volunteers. He told me he would have to get back to me on that. So I left and went straight to Lowes. I told the manager at Lowes my plans and he donated a five gallon water cooler and 30 pair of gloves. I went to Home Depot from there and they donated the use of a truck for the day. While at church that week I asked my Sunday school to help. I called all called my local friends to help as well. Everyone had something more important to do. I tried to set a new date. Still I was alone. So I picked a weekend and just did it. I brought the cooler with cold water and cups. I brought all the work gloves. And I brought the truck to take all the trash away. But I was alone.

68 bags full of stuff like this

I started at 8:00 in the morning. By 9:00 three fellow park goers were getting their glove dirty with me. By 11:00 two more pitched in. And by 1:00 in the afternoon there were eight of us in all, and we had removed 68 large industrial strength trash bags full of other peoples junk from the parking lot and around the lake. It took three and a half loads to get everything to the dump. I will never forget all those people who helped me. They didn’t help for personal gain or to impress anybody. They helped because there was a need and they were available. I’m not going to say you need to go to the extreme as I did. But just think how pretty the park near your home could be if you just left it a little cleaner every time you visit. I challenge you to pick up after yourself. And I challenge you further to teach your children why it is so important they do the same. Together we can all enjoy the beauty within our park system. And we don’t need to wait for someone else to make it happen.

I look forward to reading your comments on this post. I'd really like to know if you have any ideas on how we can encurage others not to litter.