THERE'S NOTHING "FUN" ABOUT PICKING UP FIREWORKS DEBRIS!

 

Well, here's my first Sunday night blog post.  It's going to be really hard for me to pick 10 pictures from the 70 or 80 pictures I'll take in a week, but I still think it's a good idea.  It will free up time in the evening so I can get to bed at a decent time and be ready for work in the morning.

I reached my one million piece goal on Tuesday, and I wanted to take some time off, so I took off three days, and I was MISERABLE!  

I love picking up trash.  It's a great way to exercise and beautify my community, and I meet so many wonderful people, especially now that everybody has seen me on Channel 5 News.

On Saturday, headed to Wilbeth & Main, and I found fireworks debris!  I guess it's that time of year again. 

There's really nothing "fun" about picking up fireworks debris.  

I wish the people who love to risk their lives blowing things up would clean up after themselves.

After I cleaned that mess, and rolled three big truck tires to the road so Keep Akron Beautiful can pick them up, I walked around the parking lot.  I noticed their cardboard box of trash was overflowing.  So I loaded it onto my trash cart that threw it away.  

The manager of this store used to be at the Archwood-Arlington Road store, and she really tries to keep the property clean. 

I crossed Main Street and checked all the areas I usually check, and they all looked pretty good.  But at the corner of Main & Wilbeth, I found a corner behind the building that I never noticed before.  Ick!

And here's why I say "Ick."  Snakes.  I hate snakes.  Most people hate snakes.  They are so scary the way they slither around.  

Well, mice love trash.  It's warm, and they can build nests there and breed.  Did you know that a single female mouse can have between 35 and 80 babies in one year?  That's incredible and awful!

Snakes like trash too, because they like to eat mice.  So areas like this have to go. 

And now it's gone.

I looked across Wilbeth Road, and I only saw one Styrofoam cup, so I almost didn't cross the road, but I know Styrofoam never decomposes, so I had to pick it up.

On the road, I found this extremely heavy piece of metal.  I think it is part of a trailer hitch.  I put it in my bucket and the handle broke off, so I had to carry it by hand back to my trash cart.

Can you imagine hitting that thing with your car?  It could do some serious damage, especially at a busy intersection like Wilbeth & Main.  

Picking this one thing up made me feel like a hero. 

After that, I went to the Dollar Store on Main, and it's really hard to believe it was all trashed up again.  I just cleaned it less than a week ago.  I filled up my trash bag, and opened the gate to the dumpster, and I felt something poking me.  I turned and oh my goodness!  Look at this!

There were five super long extremely sharp screws waiting to hurt somebody.  How could anybody think this is okay?  Couldn't the person who thought they were repairing the gate bend the screws down so they weren't a hazard to their employees? 

Thank goodness I had my fanny pack over my vest over my back brace over my shirt.  That's a lot of layers that protected me from being hurt. 

Today, I headed back to Wilbeth Road, on the other side of the towpath.  I worked on this road last week, but I didn't finish, and I knew there was trash here.

I parked my car, and it didn't look bad at all.  I thought it would be quick and easy. 

No, it was not quick, and picking up trash is never easy.  I picked up over a thousand pieces of trash in this little area, including a lot of glass and this stuffing from something.  I know birds like to use material like this to build their nests, but it would take a lot of birds to use this up.

After I finished this area, I headed to the Family Dollar to empty my trash bag.  The manager came racing out.  I guess an alarm goes off if anyone is near their dumpster now.  She said, "Oh good!  It's you.  I thought it might be you.  Saw you on TV!  We all gathered around and watched it." 

I told her I'll be back on Tuesday morning with Channel 3, and we're going to talk about safety when picking up trash, something I know a lot about from my personal experiences.  (I know pretty much everything you shouldn't do.)

I left there and cleaned three more areas, including all these cigarette butts at Wilbeth & Arlington!  

How can people think it's okay to throw a cigarette butt on the ground?  It takes 18 months to 10 years for a filter to break down, and even then, it can turn into microplastics, which are harmful to the environment.

That's why there are so many.  They don't go away and nobody but me wants to pick them up.

I've picked up almost 6,000 pieces of trash toward my next million.  It took me two years and four months to pick up the first million.  I hope to pick up the second million in one year!  

I'm more organized and way faster now!  Maybe I can.  Maybe I can't.  I only know I'm going to try.