Remember that clean environment advertising slogan from the 70’s? Well, it’s time to bring it back and post it near our local salt ponds. A few days ago, while on my morning bird scouting outing, I noticed that a lot of detritus (my nicer word for trash) had accumulated on the side of the road by the salt ponds. The natural beauty was marred by fast food cups and wrappers and beer cans and tiny liquor bottles and Dunkin Coffee cups – all manner of things that should never be tossed from car windows but still manage to litter this Westerly road side.
I’m not sure what came over me at the sight, but I decided to pick some of detritus up; I just couldn’t leave it lying there, desecrating the home of my ducks. It was an astonishingly beautiful morning, even in the dead of winter, and I spent the next twenty minutes happily picking up trash. The only thing that would have made me happier at that moment was if I could have reached every single piece of detritus strewn along the salt pond roadside. But my arms weren’t long enough to get to it all.
I’m not sure what came over me, but upon my return home, I went online and ordered myself a trash picker – you know, one of those long handled pincer tolls like you see in the hands of some work crews who are sent out in orange jumpsuits to clean up our highways.
My winter down jacket was bright orange.
Now I have a picker.
I’m all set.
It may be losing battle – for a small town, there’s sure a lot of car window waste out there – but if no one fights it, the battle will already be lost. From now on, my car will be well equipped with my picker and some large leaf bags, and the weather permits, and I have a little spare time, I will stop on the side of the road by the salt ponds and pick up some trash. I’ll do it for the birds, for the community, for myself, and leave this small seaside town in Rhode Island just a little more beautiful than it already is.
Now I know what’s come over me.
I belong.
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