TODAY WAS INCREDIBLE!

 

I went out to find trash to pick up, and there wasn't any until I came to this gas station on the Dayton Mountain Highway.  A very nice employee was helping the fuel truck unload, and I told him what I was doing.  He said, "We appreciate you!"  That made me feel really good.

There was no trash in the parking lot.  They work hard to keep it clean, but along the edges of the property, there was lots of trash.  I saw litter down the bank and into the creek.  I only picked up what I could reach with my trash grabber. 

I got that side all picked up, and from the Dayton Mountain Highway, it looks really good.  Then I cleaned behind the building and on the other side.

This gas station is the only one in the area, so it gets a lot of traffic.  Hard to believe it's this clean.  I picked up thousands of pieces of trash around gas stations in Akron.

You can see a few pieces of trash down by the creek.  I don't know who will pick those up.  Too dangerous for me.

I found a ten foot electrical wire.  I would have hated to run over that with my car!  It was right by the parking lot.

And I found lots of straws and cigarette butts.  Nobody thinks to pick those up.  They're little.  Still, it takes years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade.  If they aren't picked up, they accumulate.

So I picked up 717 pieces of trash.  I don't know what I'll do next week.  THERE'S NO TRASH!  I'm so glad I didn't set a one million piece goal in Dayton, Tennessee!   I could never reach it here.

Why is this busy touristy area so clean?  I need to find out.  All the areas I cleaned weeks ago are still clean.  If someone wants to enjoy picking up trash, this is the place to do it.  What you do here really makes a difference!

So I emptied my trash bag in the gas station's dumpster, rolled my trash cart behind my car, and walked to the other side of the parking lot to take a picture of the trash all cleaned up, and . . .  

I got back in my car and drove home.  In my driveway, I opened the back to get my trash cart out, and I wish you could have seen the look on my face!  There was nothing there!  I left my trash cart in the parking lot?  Oh no!

Oh my goodness!  I raced back to the gas station, and there it was, right where I left it!  I know I wasn't gone long, but that never would have happened in Akron.  Somebody would have taken it or run over it.  But there it was, standing there waiting for me to come back.

TODAY WAS INCREDIBLE!