7/28/11, Kunkel Park, #50

Happy Birthday to me!  

7/26/11, Route 31 South towards circle, #49

Returned to complete the rest of Route 31 South, and easily filled another heavy bag.  It always feels good to pick up large pieces of debris like this sheet of styrofoam, which is such an eyesore and makes such a mess!

7/25/11, Route 31 South towards circle, #48

The facelift that I had guesstimated would take 50 minutes was more involved than I thought, so I will have to return tomorrow to finish it.  I started at Happy School and headed south.  Lots of trash.  I had to leave some behind, as it was sitting along the edge of the woods tangled in patches of poison ivy.

7/24/11, Denow Road Shopping Center, #47

Another extremely sweaty morning crisscrossing hot pavement.  It made me smile when my iPod shuffled up Counting Crow's rendition of Big Yellow Taxi... "Don't it always seem to go -  That you don't know what you got till it's gone - They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot."  It is the perfect theme song for my last two facelifts.  Anyway, I received positive comments from two very nice people.  Thank you, nice people!  That makes up for all of the others that I am invisible to.  Most people just look the other way while Julie and I step and stoop and step and stoop our way across the landscape dragging a black bag.  Sort of like we are like homeless people or something ... you know they exist but you'd rather pretend you don't see them than actually help, because chances are they are crazy and who wants to deal with that?  And I have to admit that I do feel and absolutely appear a little crazy, doing this in the middle of a heat wave!  I gathered a very heavy bag of trash.

7/23/11, Nassau Park Parking Lot, #45 & 46

Julie and I spent a very long time (and there is a heat wave going on, by the way) crisscrossing the humungous Nassau Park parking lot in front of Michael's and Target. Although we were literally dripping with sweat when we finally dragged ourself into Wegman's for a cold drink, we were extremely happy with all of the trash that we had collected.  

Why?  Why eat three and leave five on the pavement?

7/21/11, Kunkel Park, #44

On this particular day at Art in the Park it seemed like there were pieces of litter everywhere.  Much of it was from some projects that had been done, but an equal amount had been left behind by other park guests.  I gave the campers a challenge they were happy to accept:  See how quickly you can pick up 20 pieces of litter.  Within five minutes, the park looked much better.  

7/11/11, Groton Long Point Lagoon, #43

 My amazing friend Sally did a facelift for me around the lagoon at Groton Long Point, Ct.  Seeing as I am coming down the home stretch, I am incredibly grateful!  As a child, I was very lucky to be able to visit Sally and her family nearly every summer at Groton Long Point, and those memories are highlights of my youth.  I can close my eyes and put myself right back on the beach, the hot sun sizzling the baby oil slathered all over my body, listening to the tinny sound of "Beach Baby" blasting out of my red TootaLoop transistor radio.

7/10/11, HV Quarry Baseball Field, #42

When Julie and I did our facelift along this portion of Route 31, I had noticed that the driveway leading up to the Quarry field was peppered with litter.  But first, I cleaned around the traffic triangle at the intersection of Route 31 and Pennington-Hopewell Road.  The triangle looked a lot tidier without abandoned drink containers and the large, heavy truck tire tread that had been abandoned there.


I was afraid to reach into any of the foliage to pick up pieces of trash.  Call me a baby, but I'm not eager for a repeat of yesterday's ant incident or another bout of poison ivy.


Not surprisingly, most of the garbage was snack bar related.  

7/09/11, I-95 Ramp to Route 31, #40 & #41

Although a facelift was done here on December 4, 2010, it was time for another.  It didn't look too bad from the road, but I single handedly collected enough debris to fill two black garbage bags.  


Our town doesn't look as litter strewn in the summer as in the winter.  This is why: mowers shred garbage up into small pieces that are more easily swept away by wind.  But there are shards of soda and beer cans left behind, and whatever fast food containers have accumulated since the last mow.

The hot, humid weather and difficult glove situation continue to make facelifts less pleasant than usual.  During this facelift, I felt a crawling sensation on my un-gloved left hand and when I glanced down it was covered in small ants.

Small ants sting.

7/03/11, Shop Rite Parking Lot, #39

I know it's crazy, but we can't stay away.  We needed a fast dependable facelift, so we headed back to Shop Rite and were very pleasantly surprised by how oddly ... neat? ... the parking lot appeared.  Seriously, it seemed to be pretty much devoid of it's usual collection of plastic bags, store circulars, and general trash.  We were impressed by someone's efforts to tidy up.


However... there was still plenty for two experienced trash collectors to collect.  I focused on all of the disgusting debris that gets smushed against the turtarriers.  Isn't "turtarrier" a great word?  A turtarrier is the cement block used to mark the end of a parking space.





It was still really hot and humid, and to complicate that, Julie and I found it extremely difficult to get our plastic gloves onto our hands.  (Note to self, keep baby powder in car for those moments).  


It was a successful, but kind of gross, facelift.

7/02/11, Shop Rite Stormwater Basin, #37 & #38

After months of noticing debris in the stormwater basin on the left hand side of Shop Rite, Julie and I just had to clean it up.  I know, we are supposed to avoid Shop Rite.


It started out to be a gorgeous day, but it quickly got hot and humid.  Hot and humid weather make facelifts much less fun, just let me throw that out there.  


We decided to leave our garbage neatly bagged up next to the outdoor garbage cans instead of dealing with the dumpster scene.  We know how that can go...

June?

I am not quite sure where the month of June went.  It was obviously a very busy month.  Perhaps there was a lot of bad weather on weekends?  Was I overwhelmed by the end of the school year and the beginning of Art in the Park?  I do know we did travel one weekend.  Whatever my very good reasons were, the result was a month without a single facelift.  

5/29/11, PEAC Health Club, #36

I wanted to do a face lift in a place I visit frequently, PEAC Health & Fitness.  The landscapers there do a terrific job and it is clearly well maintained.  But, sigh, it is my cross to bear that my eyes are constantly drawn to those little bits and pieces of trash that are missed by most. 

It was an interesting face lift because the trash was so "healthy" compared to every other spot I have cleaned.  

A sampling of the most common items discarded in the parking lot:

those little plastic single use teeth flossers 

pieces of energy bar wrappers

chewed gum or gum wrappers

socks or footies (just one of each) 

Power-ade or water bottles

I was there super early in hopes of avoiding attention, and to my amazement a small group of obviously dedicated gym rats arrived about 5 minutes before PEAC opened to hang outside the door.  I received some good natured ribbing and invitations to clean cars and homes!   

5/22/11, Denow Road Shopping Center, #35

It was a day of little scraps, which I find can be more of an eyesore than larger pieces.  Although I worked steadily for 56 minutes, I only collected about half a bag of trash. I also only was able to clear about 3/4 of the parking lot.

As always, anthropologic musings kept me happily absorbed in my work.  A trail of "Thank you" mint wrappers flowed into the parking lot from the trattoria.  Could mints be made with wrappers made out of birdseed or something?  Since they are all ending up on the ground, that may be nicer for the birds and the environment.  Peculiarly, there were a lot of q-tips ... I am still perplexed about what they are being used for in the middle of a parking lot.  Cash register generated coupons were the winning  discard in front of Stop & Shop.  Isn't there a way to keep that information on-line instead of printing them all out?  Imagine all of the paper and ink that could be saved if coupon information could be electronically attached to a customer's store card account.
I am so full of great ideas!  Just call me an idea abyss.

5/07/11, Route 31 North, near Baseball Field, #34

Julie and I finished up the area along Route 31 N. that we started last week.  It was perilous going, not because of the traffic, which naturally is always a mild concern, but because of the scourges of Spring.  I am just crossing my fingers that neither of us will end up with a telltale rash of any type.  Despite the perils, our commitment to my pledge will continue!

Scourges of Spring

5/01/11, Route 31 North, near Baseball Field, #33

May Day was a very exciting pickup.  Dare I label it auspicious?  First of all, the location was scouted out and suggested by my friend Benji.  This stretch of road is one that she travels often, and it is always satisfying to improve the quality of a friend's life by making her world a cleaner place!  Anyhow, Benji was particularly annoyed by a piece of white styrofoam that had apparently been lodged into a bush on the side of the road for a long time.  

Good news, Benji - You will never be bothered
by this piece of white styrofoam again!

One very exciting thing that occurred was that Julie hit pay dirt!  Or at least she hit a dirty dollar!  We felt like she won the lottery.  Honestly, we don't do this for any sort of payment... but that made finding cash even more exciting!

Thanks again for the location tip, Benji!
It really paid off for us!

In addition to the cash, we received a loud "thank you!" from a passing car.  That made us smile!  We found a jackpot of exciting items to pick up that were a welcome change of pace from the usual haul.  We found several long pieces of old fire hose.  We found a tennis ball, and several softballs.  Well I can't remember anything else specific, but we didn't even finish this location - we only got through half of the strip before our bags were heavy and full to bursting.  Honestly, we were ready to leave, because we kept finding ticks on us and that was creepy.

Don't worry, Benji, Julie and I promise 

that we will be back to finish the job.

4/24/11, S. Main Street near circle, #32

Easter morning Ted, Julie and I all got up early and decided to do a family facelift.  We tackled the strip of S. Main Street from the circle to where it meets Pennington-Lawrenceville Road.  It looked like an easy plan, but all three of us filled our bags and Julie's actually split open it was so full!  We felt great when we were finished.  

What was in your Easter basket?
Ours was overflowing!

Sadly, when I drove by that stretch today, I noticed some new trash - a paper cup - had already appeared.

4/10/11, Shop Rite, #31

     I know we weren't going to do Shop Rite again, but when Julie and I drove by and saw the parking lot, we couldn't help ourselves.  As usual, the north side of the parking lot was heavily dotted with trash along the grass and woven into the treeline.  Julie expressed frustration at not being able to reach a lot of the debris, which is protected by a barrier of pricker bushes.  Even without the use of a rake, we managed to gather two full bags without venturing away from the area.  Suffice it to say that with a rake we could have filled a box of bags.  Most of the garbage is newspaper circulars, receipts, and the usual assortment of grocery lists, whipped cream cans emptied of nitrous oxide, plastic drink bottles and empty food containers and plastic bags.

3/27/11, Misquamicut Beach, Westerly, Rhode Island, #29 & 30

I drove Audrey back to Connecticut College after enjoying her for two weeks of spring break, and we spent the night with my good friend Sally at her new house in Ct.


Sally joined me on a facelift (her third!) at Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, Rhode Island.  We did a circular route that included beach and parking lot.

Sunny, windy, and nippy!

It was a beautiful morning. The beach was empty except for some cawing seagulls and a passing jogger named Danny who was kind enough to snap our photo to document our haul.  Not a ton of litter, which was nice, but enough to keep us cheerfully occupied.   

3/20/11, Jacob's Creek Road, #27 & #28

Sunday was the epitome of spring, an invitation to Julie and me for a double pick-up.  Ted and I had both separately noticed the huge amount of trash strewn along the sides of Jacob's Creek Road, so we headed towards that.  We geared up extra hefty bags, and two pairs of gloves on our hands.


As usual, what looked to be a lot of trash from a drive-by was in reality even more.  There is always something hidden under a pile of leaves, and in this case, it was bottles and cans.  Left as we were with only increasingly heavy bags of refuse and no explanation for how it appeared on the side of the road, Julie and I amused ourselves with our favorite pick-up conversation... a round of litter forensics.


Apparently, after dark, Jacob's Creek Road turns into one big party.  We picked up what seemed like a hundred pounds plus of liquor bottles, beer bottles, energy drink containers, empty and partially full packs of cigarettes, and empty party food packaging.  There was one shoe.  There was a sodden blinged out, bedraggled purple leather purse that held a barren faux Tory Burch wallet.  I found long bleached bones with an attached webbed foot... the leg of a duck?


What does go on at night on that road?  Any guesses as to how long it will take the trash to re-accumulate?  

An absolutely beautiful setting, all tidied up for spring.

      

3/13/11, Route 31 Southbound, between circle and Search Avenue, #25 & #26

The following morning, Julie and I were back to clean up the opposite side of Route 31.  Julie started around the parking lot of the liquor store while I, thinking ahead this time, walked to Search Avenue so I wouldn't have to walk as far with a full bag at the end of my pickup.  The plan was for Julie to quickly finish the parking lot and then meet me halfway down Route 31.  

Mother Nature does her part to make the world a more
beautiful place, even when we treat her disrespectfully.

That didn't quite work.  Julie found so much trash in and around the parking lot that her bag was too full to join me.  My own bag was very heavy and bursting at the seams.  Much of the trash was smashed into the slope of the yards along the shoulder, probably pushed there by snowplows.  This resulted in a lot of muddy, waterlogged drink containers, plus the usual debris.  Those mini liquor bottles seem to be a big hit, as do the mini 5 hour energy shots. One would think that the recipient of all that energy would have the ability to walk or run or fly to some sort of trash receptacle.  But that's just me thinking out loud.

Julie found it very curious that there was a 24 pack of empty beers in the parking lot, neatly put back into their container.  Obviously the person who drained the bottles was a bit of a neatnik, seeing as they were all organized.  I wonder if it nagged at that person's conscience to leave all of that trash in the parking lot instead of putting it where it belonged, in a recycling container?     

3/12/11, Route 31 Northbound, between circle and Search Avenue, #24

My trusty partner Julie and I decided to attack the area between the Route 31 traffic circle and Search Avenue.  We started with the Northbound shoulder.  It didn't look like that much from the car, but we both filled our bags to the brim with heavy trash.  It was difficult to carry our bags back to where we were parked.

2/19/11, Mercer County Library, Hopewell Branch, #23

After the mountains of snow finally melted and I had recovered from a ridiculously long, energy-sapping cold, I was able to return to my personal quest to pick up litter 50 times before my 50th birthday.  The ground was soaked so I had to choose my location carefully.  I decided to tackle the landscape on the eastern side of the Mercer County Library parking lot where I had noticed a windswept wall of trash decorating the trees.  

However, while leaving my own neighborhood, I saw an area that needed tidying up, so I made a quick stop and gathered a small but heavy bag of trash.  

At the library, my pickup consisted primarily of discarded drink containers, plastic bottles, and empty snack food and fast food bags.  I couldn't not wander onto the perimeter of the high school student parking lot because it too was littered with more of the above.  Isn't there some type of a nature or recycling club at the high school that could provide waste containers in the parking lot and/or routinely clean up the trash left by students?  Belonging to an organization like that would look great on a college resume.  Just thinking out loud.

  

1/03/11, Nassau Park Parking Lot, #22

When the weather turned balmy following the holiday blizzard we received on December 26th, I was eager to get back to my litter patrol duties.  Since the ground was still snow-covered, I decided to get up early and go to the Wegman's supermarket at Nassau Park on Route 1.  I don't usually travel so far but whenever I've shopped in that line-up of stores over the past few months I have been struck by the large amount of trash strewn about.


Still leery from the incident at Shop Rite, I decided to check-in at the customer service desk before I began picking up trash.  I was assured by a very young store manager that it was no problem, but that there wasn't any place that I could put the trash I collected.  I decided that I would cart the garbage around in my car until I found a dumpster, and set out.  I was happily plucking trash from the front sidewalk of the store when an older store employee approached me.  Without meeting my eyes, he told me that I couldn't pick up trash in front of Wegman's, because if I was hurt while doing so, they would be held liable.  I was so disappointed.  He suggested that I pick up trash in front of Kohl's or Target instead.  He said that he would have his own staff members clean up trash in Wegman's parking lot, which made me feel awkward, because the last thing I wanted to do was to cause someone else additional work.   


There was still a ton of pavement and trash to keep me busy, and I filled two Hefty bags with soaking wet litter.  And hello, Wegman's?  You may not allow me to pick up anything in your parking lot, but I would say that 50% of the trash I picked up was imprinted with your name, most notably napkins, plastic bags, coffee cups, and receipts, plus tons of small plastic "sample" cups and forks. 

Is this personal crusade of mine ridiculous?  Since when is a good deed discouraged because of  (the highly unlikely chance of) potential liability?  Has society become that litigious?  I find it all very disturbing and perplexing.  I am not even half way through my personal challenge, and now I feel like despite my humble intentions I am potentially at risk for being considered a public nuisance by some of the places I am trying to help!