There are a lot of small, local waterways in this area. Creeks feed into streams, streams into rivers, rivers into the sea, like a vast circulatory system. All of the trash that ends up in parks and little groves around these creeks doesn’t just stay locally, it eventually moves along, causing more damage as it goes. That’s why it’s so important not to litter in the first place. But, since people are gonna people, it also helps to go actively engage in a park cleanup.
This past Saturday, five of us (from the Neodruidry group I’m part of) went to a park that’s part of the local watershed. Armed with grabbers, bags, and gloves, we started along the trail and kept going for about an hour and a half, filling bags with a speed that was honestly pretty surprising. Old clothes, broken dishes, water bottles (mostly water bottles), liquor bottles, diapers, shopping bags, takeout containers, plastic wrap, aluminum foil… There was a surprising variety of grossness.
At one point, I was just following along from one bit of trash to the next like I was pursuing some kind of very disturbed Hansel and/or Gretel. Next thing I know, I’m on a steep, rocky bank with no easy way to climb up and a bag that’s too heavy to let me even if there was.
Oh well. That’s one fun thing about a park cleanup — you sometimes end up in interesting places you didn’t expect to be.
I continue along the creek, fishing trash out and stuffing it into the bag. I eventually find a spot that looks easier to climb, right beside a bridge. I conk my head in the process, but I do eventually emerge, crashing through the undergrowth like Sasquatch, to run into my Handsome Assistant.
“Oh. There you are! I was looking for you.”
“Ha ha, yep!” I laugh, trying my best not to look like someone who’d just climbed out of a creek with a sack of trash and sticks in their hair, arms studded with fresh scabs and thorns. “Look!” I pull an object out of my pocket. “I found a cool thing!” It is an abandoned wasp nest.
He is very understanding about all of this.
We join the others and continue bagging trash.
By the end of the park cleanup, we’ve got nine bags (nine!) of garbage. No scale, but most of them were pretty heavy (I’d say they ranged from 15-35 pounds). Some people thanked us as we worked, which was really nice — I just feel a little bad because I wasn’t expecting it and thought they were talking to someone else at the time, so I didn’t think to acknowledge it.
I’m tired and sore now, but it’s totally worth it. It’s the good kind of tired. The park was beautiful even before cleaning it up, but it’s great to know that none of those metals or plastics will end up in our waterways now.
Marble Crow 