Whatcha Gonna Do With All That Junk?
Anyone who has ever tried to be a good roommate also has an idea of what it means to be an environmentally responsible citizen. Just mentally replace the rooms with ecosystems and the roommates with other animals (for some of us, this isn’t much of a stretch!). There are the inevitable struggles over shared areas, the vying for food in the fridge, and the ever-present question of cleanliness. What do we do with all that junk?
Roadways, beaches, and rivers are some of the areas where trash collects. You can be an environmentally responsible citizen and directly improve your community and city by spending some time cleaning up. Take advantage of outdoor walks to pick up some litter, or gather some friends and make it a housecleaning party. When you’re done, you’ll enjoy a wonderful sense of accomplishment and the refreshing feeling of sharing a clean and healthy living space.
Perhaps the easiest way to get involved starts with going for a walk outdoors. But this is a walk you’ll look back on proudly no matter what distance you cover. Before you leave home, bring along some latex gloves, or—to avoid disposables—you can use your household rubber cleaning gloves. Another thing you’ll need is a bag or container. If you like to avoid buying plastics, no sweat: you can buy bioplastic bags at most grocery stores, or just bring along any sort of container, bucket, or basket to do the job. We toss so many plastic bags that you’ll probably even find bags along your way that you can use to remove trash from an area.
Now it’s time to get down and dirty! If you walk often, you have probably noticed strips of road, beach, or stream that look less than glamorous draped in old shoes and Styrofoam. By setting out to clean these areas, you will improve the area where you live and maybe even inspire passers-by to join you or do the same. Having participated in such random acts of environmental kindness as this, I would say that one of the best parts of heading out on a clean-up is when a passer-by stops to ask what you are doing and is encouraged that people care that much about their community. By recycling as much of what you find as possible, you will make your day all the more fruitful.
Interested in the idea, but want to take action with a group of other people? Gather a friend or two and head out together. Or float the idea past your coworkers to see if anyone’s interested. Company volunteer days are also perfect ways to create good press for the company while enriching the community where the business is located.
If you live near a shoreline, this is the perfect time to plan for next month’s International Coastal Cleanup Day, September 15th. To check out what’s going on in your area on this day, just Google or Goodsearch "coastal cleanup [your state]". In California, Delaware, and a number of other states, you can find and join groups that are planning coastal cleanup days. If you have a group of your own, you can make your mark felt by registering in the number of people who plan to take action on Coastal Cleanup Day with the Ocean Conservancy.
For educators, a day cleaning a beach, river, or stream also serves as an excellent learning opportunity. Lesson plans might include studies of the ecosystem’s water quality or plant and animal life, research on the global economy by learning where the products come from that are found during the cleanup, and journalism or writing improvement in which students record their day’s experiences. The California Coastal Commission offers a sampling of these resources at its website.
References and Resources:
The Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=press_icc
The California Coastal Commission: http://www.coastal.ca.gov/
State of Delaware Coastal Cleanup Site: http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Info/CoastalCleanup.htm
Earth911’s Beach Water Quality Site: http://www.earth911.org/waterquality/index.asp?cluster=0
Photo Sources:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8182719@N06/500740510/
Below: http://www.flickr.com/photos/staci/242621372/
Tags: Activism, Biology and Biodiversity, cleanup, coastal cleanup, Community, Conservation, Culture, Education, Environment, Family, garbage, Landscaping, Outdoors, Recreation, Renovation and Repair, trash, waste
August 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Hi Gavin, that was a nice inspiring post. Living in London the amount of junk that could be collected from the streets in one day must be unbelievable. Just a quick question, you say you can get bioplastic bags at most grocery stores (in the US I assume) but I’ve never seen them for sale in England. Do you know where they’re available from, or is not using plastic bags at all better?!
August 16th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Hi Joel,
I empathize about the dirty streets; I’ve also lived in cities and neighborhoods with a bit of a trash problem. Your comment gave me the opportunity to research biodegradable plastics in the UK, and the good news is that, yes, they are available. Without further ado, here is a rather long answer to your very short questions:
WAIT… BEFORE WE BEGIN, if you’re really looking for a short and sweet answer, I’ll summarize briefly: (1) yes, excitingly enough, biodegradable plastics are available in the UK; (2) for a one-person clean up, plastic bags are light-weight and easy to carry, but biodegradable plastic bags are a greener option; (3) if you’re doing a group clean-up with friends or co-workers, you can sidestep the entire issue of plastics and “bioplastics” by simply bringing large buckets or any other large receptacles with you to the site of the clean-up, filling these with the garbage you find, and then emptying them into the dumpster or trash bin at home.
And now for a more detailed look at our options… let’s get on with the show:
Perhaps the most interesting way to procure biodegradable bags in the UK arrived in September of 2006 when retail giant, Tesco, decided to make all of its carrier bags biodegradable. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4758419.stm) Therefore, if you shop at Tesco, you can get biodegradable bags for free. If you have a way of composting or own a “vermiculture” worm composting bin, biodegradable bags are especially useful in your kitchen for storing compostable food scraps in before taking them to your compost. They also make great bags for picking up litter, as described in the article above.
If you do not shop at Tesco and the local grocery markets in your area don’t sell biodegradable plastic bags, you can also buy biodegradable plastic bags of all sorts online. BioBags is one of the larger retail producers of biodegradable plastic bags for the home. In the UK, you can buy BioBags online at http://www.biobags.co.uk.
You also ask an important question: is it better to use biodegradable plastic bags, or to avoid using bags all together?
My reasoning is that even if you purchase non-biodegradable plastic bags to pick up trash, you will still be doing a good deed. In the past, I have used spare plastic shopping bags to pick up trash from river areas, which protects an unspoiled ecological area by moving garbage to an already heavily impacted landfill. I’ve also used bags that I found along the way; or, on runs, I will sometimes pick up a glass bottle or aluminum can and jog with it to the nearest recycling bin.
As you suggest, it is always good to avoid plastics at any opportunity. I whole-heartedly encourage you to use whatever option is easiest for you when it comes to picking up trash in your area. Buckets and baskets are less convenient to bring on morning jogs, but work very well for an organized trash pick-up day with your friends. (By the way, please forgive my U.S. spellings; we have Daniel Webster to thank for that, but that’s another story.) ☺ As mentioned above, you can also use biodegradable plastic bags. Like all things under the sun, these two have positive and negative aspects.
In my opinion, the plus side to using a biodegradable plastic bag is threefold: firstly, if you buy biodegradable plastics, you will be supporting a growing industry with good intentions for the environment; secondly, bags are light and small enough that you can take them with you on any run or walk and use them only if you encounter trash to pick up; lastly, the bag itself is not made with petroleum and, unlike traditional plastics, will biodegrade quickly once it is disposed.
This said, I should give the disclaimer that there are always drawbacks to be found, even with such a wonderful improvement as biodegradable plastics. One of the main issues that comes to mind is that when we put anything biodegradable—from orange peels to biodegradable plastic bags— in the trash, that item travels to a landfill. It decomposes, which is fantastic, but as it decomposes, it releases small amounts of greenhouse gases. This problem with biodegradable bags (or any biodegradable food item) can be overcome entirely by composting the item. If your city doesn’t have a compost/yard waste collection program in place, you can build a home compost bin or build a worm composting bin. I myself have done the latter, and it’s actually quite a fun little project. A good resource I can recommend personally for learning how to build home composters is Seattle Tilth, which offers information at their website: http://www.seattletilth.org/resources/compost.
I hope that this has been useful. As usual, please feel free to send in any other questions.
Yours in green living,
Gavin