Recycling Day! (18-Nov-2016)

I had been wanting to do a recycling day for a couple weeks. The conditions have to be right, with no chance of rain or wind. Finally I got a nice clear day and piled everything in the yard for the sort. There were 14 bags, one sack and a bin full of items to sort through and count, all of which was collected since my last recycling day on September 8th. 

Since I started doing these recycling sorts I have come up with a couple tricks to quicken the process. Not stopping for as many photos is one of them. The process still takes a lot of time though and with the shorter days I still wasn't sure I would finish before the sun went down. Luckily it did go fairly quick and it was just getting dark when I took the last load down to the recycling center.

In total on this sort I had 3,243 recyclable items. This broke down to 1,625 aluminum cans, 1,190 plastic bottles, 388 glass bottles, 30 plastic jugs, 6 plastic oil containers and 4 steel cans. 

The grand total for the year now stands at 15,779 recyclable items this project has taken out of our waters and off of our trails here in Eastern PA. I have not done all of this alone and have had help on multiple clean-ups from Leigh Ann Stratakos, Tyler Sacks and Jeffery Greco throughout the year. The clean-ups will continue and I am pretty sure I will at least top 16,000 removed recyclable items by the end of the year! 
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

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Recycling Day! (8-Sept-2016)

Since July 7th I had accumulated a good amount of recyclables. A recycling day was well overdue. My car needed a minor repair and while I was waiting to get it back I decided it was time for a recycling sort. Had around twenty bags to go through and I knew it was going to take me awhile. 

As always on my recycling days I sorted out the plastic bottles, plastic jugs, aluminum cans, oil containers and glass bottles. 

It took around five hours to get all of the bags sorted and all of the items counted.

In total there ended up being 2,828 recyclable items collected since July 7th. 1,282 plastic bottles, 1,258 aluminum cans, 245 glass bottles, 39 plastic milk/tea jugs and 4 plastic oil containers. This brought this years total to 12,536 recyclable items this project has removed from our waterways and natural areas here in Eastern Pennsylvania. 

This does not included recyclables collected on the Wildlands Conservancy clean-ups or the clean-ups I have done in Montgomery County. Wildlands properly disposed of the recyclables on their trips and the recyclables collected in Montgomery County were disposed of their due to me not wanting to possible transport a non-native insect pest that has been discovered in that area. I also have to thank Leigh Ann Stratakos, Tyler Sacks, Jeffrey Greco and Andrew Curtis, all who have helped with clean-ups since July 7th. 

I think 12,536 is a pretty good number of recyclables removed from our waterways and natural areas so far this year, but there is always more to be done. The clean-ups will continue!

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

Like this project? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Recycling Day! (11-May-2016)

Had 27 bags of recyclables to sort through today. All were collected since March 16th. I have wanted to do a recycling day for some time now, but every time I planned one the weather would not cooperate. 

Just like picking up all of these recyclables, sorting them too, takes time. 

The sort and taking the plastics and glass to the recycling center took a little over seven hours. 

This was definitely the highest amount of cans I have had on any recycling day on this blog. 

In total there were 3,425 recyclable items. 1,669 aluminum cans, 1,455 plastic bottles, 244 glass bottles, 31 plastic milk/tea jugs and 26 plastic oil containers. 

This recycling day brings the years total up to 7,950 recyclable items taken out of our environment and disposed of properly. This is in addition to all of the non-recyclables and 62 tires removed from our state parks.  

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

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Lehigh Gorge State Park and Gamelands (21-Apr-2016)

Had a meeting today with one of the managers at Hickory Run State Park. It was just to discuss access points and where to leave some of the larger items. On the way to Hickory Run I decided to pick up some items I had found, but didn't take out on other trips. Above is a VCR or similar device that I pulled off the bank yesterday. I set it next to a trail away from the river. It was too heavy to take out with everything else I had.  

I made the quick run down to it, grabbed it and hauled it back up to the car. I did my best to shake the sand out of it yesterday, but it was still loaded with it and it was like carrying a large cement block. Was happy when I got back to the car with it.

The second stop was Drake's Creek access to get some cloth items I had seen, but left behind before. On the way down the access road, the Ruffed Grouse above ran in front of me and up the bank along the road. This is the closest a grouse has ever let me get without flying away. I took the photo from the car and I tried my best to get the entire grouse in the shot. 

Normally I wouldn't pick up the discarded underwear of another, it was there though and I had a bag to fill and I made an exception. The green object, I thought was a blanket turned out to be more like a hoody. I thought the log was over it, instead it was just ripped into pieces.

Out of this stop was the underwear, hoody, a towel and a couple recyclables I missed last time. It was a quick stop and now those items are off my list of things I had to go back for. 

Taking 903 from Drake's Creek to Hickory Run I spotted this Bald Eagle hanging out above a small pond. It was a pleasant surprise and was the second time I sighted one on this road this year. 

Had some time to kill when I arrived at Hickory Run and took a short walk up the Shades of Death Trail. Found a few items on the opposite side of the stream as the trail. 

From Hickory Run I wanted to stop at a specific spot at a gamelands, bridge construction didn't allow for me to park at the normal spot I do. I found a different lot and a new way down to the river. In doing so I also found more trash. The first was this pile of mostly glass above. I removed nearly all of it leaving only a few broken bottles. I do need to get burlap or another more durable kind of bag. I don't like leaving anything behind. 

Not much further towards the river I found this barrel. My pack was already filled with glass and my garbage bag had a rip in it so I couldn't take much more glass. I picked through and removed the cans an plastics that I could see and get to. I have to point out that if you find an old rusty barrel in the woods it is not a garbage can, no one will empty it and it and the trash you put in it will be there for a long, long time. Take out everything you take into the woods. I will return to this site to take out more of the glass when I have a chance.

It was hot out there and by the time we made it to the river Penny was panting. I found a lot of washed up bottles and cans. I grabbed what I could and headed down to the river so Penny could cool off. 

We both ended up wading out into the water and Penny took a short swim. I was even tempted, the water is still too cold for that though. 

This was the total haul from the car to the river and back. Dependent upon the weather tomorrow I may end up paddling a section of the gorge. 
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

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Recycling Day (16-Mar-2016)

Have been wanting to do a recycling day for over a week now. This was the first day everything worked out that I could. I had twenty bags of recyclables to sort through and I did want to still do a clean-up today so I started early. All of the trash in this post was collected since my last recycling day on February 7th. 

As usual this took some time. I sort and count everything. Did get distracted when counting glass bottles and I had to do a recount to get the numbers right. That was the worst part of the whole thing. In all it wasn't that bad of a sort.

Getting towards the end I knew I wasn't going to have as much as the last sort, but it was going to be close.

In total for this sort I had 2,147 recyclable items. There were 930 plastic bottles, 834 aluminum cans, 355 glass bottles, 18 plastic oil containers and 10 plastic jugs. 

This brought the 2016 total for recyclables to 4,528 so far this year. In addition I have taken a good amount of non-recyclables as well. It is still winter and I never expected to have accomplished this much this early on in the year. Much more to come!

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

Like this blog? Like it on Facebook: Taking Out the Trash in Eastern PA

Recycling Day! (7-Feb-2016)

The first Recycling Day of 2016. I had just over twenty bags to sort through and I never thought in winter I would have this much. Waited for the perfect day with no wind and high enough temperatures to make it bearable sorting trash for many hours. 

I didn't remember picking up this many glass bottles. Last year I avoided glass, not wanting to deal with broken glass on these sorting days. With all of these I only had four or five bottles that broke and dealing with it wasn't that bad.

In total there were 2,381 recyclable items and one full bag of garbage. The recyclables included 928 aluminum cans, 884 plastic bottles, 533 glass bottles, 20 plastic jugs and 16 plastic oil containers. This was all taken from trailsides and riverbanks. There is always more work to be done and this was just the start for this year!

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

Beltzville State Park: Part 1 (6-Jan-2016)

The original plan for today was to head to the end of Penn Forest Road in Beltzville State Park and check on a high traffic area that I had cleaned several times last year. When driving on the bridge over the inlet for Pine Run these plans changed. In the inlet was a duck, I couldn't make out the species, so I decided to take a closer look. I parked in a small park lot across the road from the Pine Run Boat Launch access. When I got out of my car the duck was still there and I headed down to the water. About half way down the path above the duck went under. I got to the lakeside and waited and waited. It never came back up. I did start finding trash, I didn't dwell on the mysterious disappearing duck and got to taking out the trash.

I have never stopped at this section before. I have paddled by it, I just never had a need or desire to park there. It seems a lot of fishermen like the spot judging by the amount of line I collected in the brush by the lakeshore. 

This was right next to the lot. I did leave the cardboard case all of this was jammed into. A lot of times I do not pick up paper products, it doesn't take them that long to biodegrade where they are. 

If you take the time to collect the items, bag the items, go for the last step and throw away the items. These people were so close, but not doing that last step defeats the purpose of the other two. 

Between the parking lot and a portion of the inlet I could see a white garbage bag that looked to be full of cans. It was on a steep slope with thick underbrush. I was only able to reach it with the tongs once I got down parallel to it on the slope. The first grab ripped the bag and I found it was a nearly full bag with not only cans, but bottles as well. I took the items out one piece at a time with the tongs and filled my pack. 

 This was everything that was in the bag on the slope. Like the other bag above, why did these people even take the time to bag this up if they were just tossing it down towards the lake anyway?

The area I covered here was not that large, but it yielded much more trash than I would have hoped. I just wanted to see what kind of duck was there, instead I got all of this.

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