Lackawanna State Forest (23-Dec-2015)

On a very rainy winter day, I was happy to have some help. Kelly and her dog Brutus joined me on a portion of today's clean-up. The original plan was to meet at Hickory Run State Park and work on a trail there, but we decided the Lackawanna State Forest would be a better place to go. This year Kelly has helped me with three clean-ups all in the same area. I am very grateful for the help and it takes a true friend to help with this kind of clean-up in today's conditions.

When we first started out the precipitation was light and throughout the hike it stayed between light and moderate. The path that we took was a mixture of access roads and trails and on November 3rd we had hiked and cleaned the same route.  

It did not matter that we cleaned this just last month, there always seems to be more trash. New cans and this time I took glass, the large bottle on the right was something I decided to leave alone last trip, now it has been removed.

This is a type of Clubmoss. It stood out from the other mosses and in some sections it appeared to be creeping across the trail. I can not tell you the exact species, but it is from the genus Lycopodium.

Here Kelly is emptying a discarded beer can, while Brutus works on sniffing out more trash. 

This was our pile, not all that much, but a lot in view of this same clean-up being done last month. All of us were soaked by this point and my collecting partners of the day had to get home for some holiday preparations. We said goodbye and I decided to go clean-up another section of the state forest. Kelly once again thank you and Brutus for coming along, it was much appreciated!

I had never driven to the end of the access road and had no idea where it went. With the amount of traffic I have seen here on some weekends I thought it might connect to another road. It did not and came to a dead end and at the end was trash. I parked and got to cleaning. I left the camera in the car, it too was soaked and I wanted it to dry. Luckily all I found was trash and no wildlife or anything else that was exceptionally photo worthy. I walked back the road a little way and filled my backpack twice. The above was the end product from this second hike of the day. 

I stopped at the entrance to take some photos on the way out. Snagged these items just from my car to the sign below. 

Even with the rain today was a great day out. If it was a little colder I think it would have been miserable. I am not sure where I am going to tomorrow, I will be taking out the trash somewhere.

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

Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails (22-Dec-2015)

A rainy and fog filled day. I set off to Hazleton, my first priority was not a clean-up, but some last minute holiday shopping. Luckily, I got through that fairly quickly and decided to stop at the Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails and see if there was any trash. I wasn't surprised when I started finding things right away.

The bottle on the left was the first piece of trash today. It was located about 15 feet from both a recycling bin and a trash can. I deposited that bottle in the recycling bin so I wouldn't have to carry it on the whole trip. The next several items were water bottles, the same old trailside trash. 

One cool thing about this section of trail is that there are a lot of educational stops along the walk. At this particular site you can learn about different types of grasses. Other stops talk about habitats, wildlife and the historic significance of the area.

Not sure what the point of a sign this big along the trail accomplishes. The many posted signs bordering the trail are good enough to explain what the property is. One thing that it is definitely not doing is discouraging people from littering in the area. Either people don't know that their drinking water comes from the reservoirs on this property or they just don't care about trash in water they will eventually consume. 

If I come across larger patches of Green Briar on a trailside there is almost always trash throw in it. Maybe it is just my luck. I did get these items and the Green Briar got me as always.    

Last year I hiked this trail several times and in this visit I found some new additions. Not only did I see a couple new bat boxes, there was also a nice display by one that explained the importance of bats.

Three party balloons today. This is two of them.

Along much of the larger reservoir posted signs state that trespassing is not allowed. In one section though there are no signs and there is a trail that leads down to the water. There was trash all the way down. Mostly beer cans and plastic bottles.

This is the larger of the reservoirs here. It is fairly large, the water is down a bit since the last time I was there. 

There are countries where people can't get clean drinking water and here we can find full plastic water bottles just laying on trailsides. I sincerely hope that this bottle was accidentally dropped. The mystery can on the right is also a waste, but before the can is recycled I am going to get some use out of it. I will be making it a new label out of recycled/recyclable materials and giving it away as a holiday gift, not for consumption of course, but it should get a good laugh or two.

The round trip walk was just under five miles and I collected a little more than half a bag. I did a sort in the parking lot, but I did not have time to do a count. 

With both a trash can and recycling bin in the parking lot I took advantage of the situation and deposited everything but the cans in the proper receptacle. The recycling bin was a tiny annoyance with just the small hole on top and being locked on the side. I do completely understand why they do that though. I am exhausted. Tomorrow I will be doing a small clean-up at Hickory Run State Park and as it looks now I might be getting some help. 
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

Recycling Day (21-Dec-2015)

This is what I collected since the last recycling day I did just last week on the 15th. I honestly can't believe it is December and I am still able to get out and collect this much. Just over twelve bags total in six days, I think that is pretty good. Doing these trash stacks isn't easy, I had to set this one up a second time after the first try toppled before I could get a shot. Some of the ones earlier in the year were much more of a challenge. The stack really is a bit of fun before sorting through what sometimes can be nasty trash.  

The bags from the hiking trips were simple. I had sorted them on site at the parks before I put them in my car. The roadside bags are not as simple and contained a lot of non-recyclable plastics and styrofoam. 

This sort went fairly quickly. Not a single glass bottle broke in the whole process, which made the sort a little more pleasant. 

Normally I would wait longer before I did a trash sort, but like I said on the last recycling day post I want to get all of my recyclables to the center before the holidays. There was barely any room in the receptacles today and it will just get worse.

In total there were 1,340 collected and two full bags of non-recyclables. For the break down, there was 823 plastic bottles, 377 aluminum cans, 100 glass bottles, 28 plastic jugs and 12 plastic oil containers. For the rest of the week the clean-ups are going to be smaller. There is rain in the forecast so I am going to stick to trails and stay off of the roadside. 

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

Nesquehoning (21-Dec-2015)

With the forecast looking like rain for the rest of the week I decided today would be best for getting back to the road. Picking up where I left off yesterday, I set my goal for three bags and got to cleaning. In the photo to the right there is a small wetland area in the depression off of the roadside. With low temperatures today I couldn't get everything out of it. This will be high on my list in the spring when it warms up again. Even though this wetland is small and right next to the road it could still contain a variety of amphibian life. That is reason enough to get back there and do a better job when it warms up.

The first bag of the day. There was a lot more styrofoam than I wanted to collect, but it was there so it went in the bag. This is a concern, because currently I can only dispose of a limited amount of non-recyclables. 

It is the holiday season and I have been seeing more holiday themed trash. This was a whole packet of labels. It is sad to see things like this, it takes natural resources to create, it is wrapped in plastic, someone paid money for it and it just ends up unused on the roadside. There is so much waste in our society and I find so much stuff that I feel there is no point to. Soda and water bottles are number one on that list. I can't believe how many I find with just a sip or two out of discarded on the road. 

This fits in with the small rant above. I really just took this photo because an unopened pack of butter was just about the most interesting thing along the roadside today. I would like to point out if you like fast food and would like to curb your appetite for it, start doing trash clean-ups. After picking up so many fast food cups and seeing the paper bags everywhere I go, I have lost pretty much all interest in fast food. 

The second bag filled today. Can you tell I forgot to take a photo of it before I started a new bag and continued on? I wasn't going back, I really just wanted to get the three bags filled and get off the road. 

The third bag filled quickly and I picked up some large plastic containers as well. In addition I found an unused flex bag, just like the ones I use, but I think this one was a little larger. I had a long walk back to the car on the opposite side of the road and a portion of it I haven't cleaned yet. 

I stuck to the road and did not go down the embankment on the way back. I still filled the found bag bringing the days total up to four. I will have to go back and get everything below the embankment. Not only small trash, but even more tires down there. Finding funding to get rid of tires is definitely high on the priority list for the new year. Today I did not find any syringes, I'm not complaining, I just found it odd. I did find another bag for them, thankfully nothing was in it. 

Getting the last bag and the two containers into the car took some pushing and shoving. Like yesterday there really is a difference visually on the section of road I have been working on. It isn't perfect, there are still paper products, car parts and larger non-recyclable items, but it is a big difference from what it was. Happy to finish by 1pm, this gave me enough time to get home, do a sort and take everything from the past week to the recycling depot. 

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

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