Post from the Past:
This weekend I participated in my first Adopt-A-Road clean-up.
7 of us spent 3 hours picking up litter on a half a mile stretch of roadway. I have to say, this was a very positive, fulfilling, and eye-opening experience for me. One of the ladies compared it to vacuuming,“immediate gratification and satisfaction”. I thought that was a very good analogy!Here are a few of the things I learned from my Adopt-A-Road experience:
Don’t wear too many layers of clothing: (bending over will be nearly impossible)
Wear boots and gloves that you don’t mind getting muddy and mucked up.
Spending 3 hours walking 0.5 miles up and down hills while carrying a bag of garbage and continually bending over then standing up again is very good exercise which will leave you sore the next day.
There are no “good” parts of town. We were in a part of town that many would consider “good” yet we still found 2 syringes.
Apparently smokers think that the side-of-the-road is their personal ashtray!
I was amazed by the number of cigarette butts we found within the first few steps we took so I started counting how many I picked up. My final tally = 1149. (This amount does not include what the other 6 people picked up)
Let me repeat that I picked up 1149 cigarette butts in a half mile stretch.
Am I the only one who finds this incredibly disturbing? That means that over 1000 times a smoker drove by this small stretch of road and flicked their cigarette butt (undoubtedly still lite) out their window. Unbelievable!
We did not find bottles or glasses: My state has a deposit on these items and every grocery type store has recycling centers at their facility where you can bring these items back and get $ for them. (might I suggest instituting the same for cigarette butts)
I was out in the fresh air, getting exercise, meeting new people, giving back to my community, making a difference, doing something that is good for the environment, animals, and people who live in the area. (we got a couple of Thank you's and a couple of honks with thumbs up)
Overall my experience was a very positive fulfilling one. I am glad that I participated and can’t wait to do it again. I would highly recommend participating in an Adopt-A-Road program in your area.
P.S. If you are a smoker and happen to be reading this blog posting, please don’t throw your cigarette butt out your car window! Pretty please!
Original post of Over Coffee-the green edition. Not to be used or copied in any way without written permission..
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8 comments:
Good for you! I think the exact same thing about cigarette butts. UGGHH! I know they think it's just one little butt...but they add up...to a lot apparently.
Ugh, that number of cig butts disgusts me as well. Well done for your part in cleaning up!
Thanks to both of you! Glad to know that I am not the only one who was disgusted by this. It was a great experience except it showed me just how out of shape I really am cuz I am still sore.
That is so admirable! It's amazing how much trash is along the roads, and especially, like you wrote, the cigarette butts! That is crazy how many there are.
Thank you Kathleen! Since then my state has added a law that includes cigarette butts as litter and has assigned a fine to it. I am anxious to see if this has helped.
What a great experience for you! That is crazy about the cig butts, gross!
We have the deposit as well, so you can always count on people cleaning up bottles along the rode! Too bad there wasn't a deposit on fast food garbage, that seems to be the worst thing around here.
I know what you mean about the cig butts being gross. It really surprised me how many there were. Maybe they should put some kind of refund on them?
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