Littering is literally out of hand

I bought a reacher/grabber tool from Home Depot today ($21 after tax) and took my dog for a walk along Rockdale Circle in the area between Skyland Drive and Rockdale Circle) I took a kitchen sized trash bag along, and within 10 minutes, I needed another bag. If you could see the sheer volume of the stuff, you would be shocked. The bag was so heavy, I had to hoist it over my shoulder to walk home with it.

What I found:

Many Styrofoam cups, lids, and straws
Cigarette butts
Fast food paper cups (Mostly Burger King, some McDonalds, 1 Starbucks)
1 tube of lip gloss
Bojangles chicken box
Paper and styrofoam plates
Clear plastic cake containers
Clear plastic 8 oz cups with lids
Many types of plastic bottles
Many types of aluminum cans

It looks like people just hurl their trash out the window as they take the curve. The aluminum can that irritated me was the one for an energy drink. If you drink an energy drink, wouldn't it give you enough energy to hang onto the can until you got to a trash can?

It was an interesting exercise - and that's what it was mainly - exercise. I need to exercise but it needs to have a purpose. I can't walk just to walk, if you know what I mean. So I'm not posting about this to get praised that I picked up trash. I needed to walk and walk the dog anyway.

But it was shocking how much I found, and I just scratched the surface of what's there. I finally had to tell myself that there would be more trash there for another day.

I do think that once there is trash in an area, then people don't feel bad about throwing their trash on top of it. It looks like "everyone does it." If we could all take a bag and a pik-stik with us as we walked, what would Snellville look like?

I'm going to get my 6-year-old son going with the grabber stick tomorrow. He'll enjoy picking out the cans and plastic bottles from the bag to put them into our recycling bin. What seems like work to adults can be really fun to a kid with a grabber.

(If you want to get a pick-up tool, you can find the Unger "Nifty Nabber' tool in the garden tool department by the rakes. It's really easy to pick up stuff without bending, and you don't have to touch it with your hands.)

You don't have to do this on a busy roadway either...you can do this in your own neighborhood. The surprised and pleased looks from the neighbors are pretty motivating.