Nesquehoning (20-Dec-2015)

My third visit to this section of route 209 between Nesquehoning and Jim Thorpe. Each time I have cleaned a different portion and even after today there is still much more to do. Since it was a nice day without rain or fog, I decided to work on the side of the road without a guardrail and very little shoulder. I don't really like the idea of working that close to traffic, someone has to do it though or the trash just piles up. The goal for the day was three bags and as always I was focusing on plastics, styrofoam, glass and aluminum.  

Not far from the car I found this syringe. In previous posts I have shown that they can be found almost anywhere and roadsides are not an exception. I bottled this one up and didn't think much of it, I also didn't think I would come across many more of them. 

There are more than a couple of these drains along this section of 209. Over the years I have seen PennDOT workers on multiple occasions clearing these drains of debris and trash. They do the same thing with all of it. Take a shovel, scoop it out of the drain and pile it up along side it. I will admit this practice does do the job of clearing the drain, however, wouldn't it make more sense to remove the trash and maybe dispose of it properly? I think if this was done there would be no chance that same trash would plug the drain again, but maybe I am just asking too much. 

One nice thing is that much of the trash I took out today was visible from the road. This means at least those who travel this section on a regular basis will notice a difference and see that someone cared enough to clean it. In a perfect world that should be enough to discourage littering in the future. I know it won't happen and it will probably be full of trash early next year, but at least some will see the difference.

The first bag was filled in no time. I took it on the other side of the road where there was a pull-off for pick-up after I was done. 

More needles. This time there were many of them and they were scattered on the roadside. Even found the bag on the right, it had three new needles in it. I carefully bottled all of the loose needles and put the bag in my pack.

Another drain and more trash. At this one there were a lot of items covered in gravel. I picked up what I could see and continued on. 

Take a careful look at this photo. Can you guess what I was capturing with it? If you guessed syringes you are correct. In total along this section of road I collected sixteen of them. Why are there so many needles along this roadway?

These two items topped off my third bag of the day. This was the first Marge head I have found. I think it may have been a golf club sock, possibly something else. Any guesses are welcome in the comments, any comments are also welcome in the comments. 

This is where I ended the day, looking at more trash. I have to look at the forecast for this week. If more than one nice day it predicted I will try to get back to this this week. If not it will end up being one of the first clean-ups of next year.  

I went and got the car and drove to pick up the bags. It is really nice that a difference can be seen in this area. The other clean-ups on this roadway didn't make it look much different in passing on the road, this one was a very clear difference. Since I found so many syringes along the roadway I did take them right to the Nesquehoning Police Station. The Chief of Police, Sean Smith, greeted me at the door and was nice enough to take the syringes. Thank you very much to Officer Smith and to the Nesquehoning Police Department for taking and properly disposing of them. 

You too can help with taking out the trash! If you get out hiking take a grocery bag with you, give it a second use and fill it with trash while you are out! Every bit helps. You can also help contributing to this project here: Help Fund Taking Out the Trash