88 days to Earth Day

So, a local surf school company is sponsoring the 3rd annual "90 days to Earth Day".  This is a project in which school kids K-12 pick up trash for 90 days until Earth Day.

I decided to pick up trash on my street today.  I did not weigh the trash today, but it was a lot!  I only walked 5 houses up and back (both sides of the street) and I picked up 553 cigarette butts!!!  I could not believe it!!  I also gathered glass and plastic bottles, aluminum cans, lots of plastic particles, a mylar balloon, car washing sponge, 5 blue doggie poop bags filled with poop!!!!  I could not believe it!  Seriously, why go through the trouble of picking up the poop if you are just going to litter it anyway????   There was more, but I could not get it b/c it was across a water-filled ditch and amongst very large entangling vines.

UNC-W Forest 14 lbs 11.4oz.

If you started at the beginning of this blog, you would know that we were inspired to start the blog b/c of our daily walks (sometimes more than once a day) in UNC-W Forest with our dog, Gigi.  We love Gigi and we love walking her at UNC-W.  But, what we do not love is all the trash we see, so we began to pick it up and made a New Year's Resolution to pick up at least one piece of trash every day.  (We usually pick up a lot more).

So, life got busy and I did not always post our collection, but we continued to pick up trash.

Today we picked up 14 lb. 11.4 oz. of trash in a little over an hour while we walked the dog and played with other dogs.   Most of the trash came from behind Carlton Place apartments.  It looks as though residents party up and throw their beer and cigarette butts over the fence into the woods.   Another "dirty" area was the Hooker Rd. access to the forest.  There we picked up many many plastic bottles and aluminum cans as well as two bags of something poopy---yuck yuck yuck!

Here is a list of our loot:
2 beer case boxes
14 plastic bottles
a pile of rusted survey flags (plastic flags)
5 glass bottles
16 aluminum cans
4 plastic cups
3 straws
1 styrofoam cup
5 glass bottles
2 dirty diapers
2 plastic bags of poop
5 plastic bags
lots of other bibs and bobs of plastic and styrofoam stuff.

Day Two Sept. 26, 2010 Access 33 south 74 cigarette butts

This was my second day of doing the 20 minute walks on the beach to pick up cigarette butts and other litter.  I found today rather interesting because yesterday was Big Sweep and I hoped for a clean beach, but there was still much to be found.  I was by myself today, so I did not collect as much  as when I was with my husband, but here is my loot:

I walked access 33 (Blockade Runner) headed south today.  1 lb. 7.1 oz.
74 cigarette butts
7 bottle caps
5 straws
1 wiffle ball
1 mini New Hanover Wildcats basketball (the kind they throw out at the game)
1 unused large black garbage bag
1 walmart plastic bag
4 styrofoam cups
1 netting (the kind that beach toys are packaged in)
2 ziplock bags
1 cigar tip
3 balloons
1 hat
1 plastic spoon
1 plastic bottle
other bits and bobs

There was more to be collected, but I had ran out of my 20 minutes and it was time for a swim before the rain came.  I am so thankful for the rain because my herb garden needs it and one of my rain barrels is completely empty.

Day One Sept. 19, 2010 Access 32 South: 142 butts; 20 bottle caps

So, we have decided to join Sara and Danielle and pick up litter for 20 minutes and weigh it.  We collected 1lb 7.3oz which included 142 cigarette butts and 20 bottle caps.

A word on whales

I am saddened to hear about the loss of a trainer's life at Sea World.  I'm sure this lady loved animals very much.

However, I am also just as saddened about the state in which we treat animals such as the orca whales.  Orcas swim freely thousands of miles between hemispheres, and humans think it is okay to capture them and keep them in a bathtub of sorts where people can come gawk at them as they jump in the air for a fish. Whales are social and have families and swim in pods.  Whales live long life spans in the wild, but only a few years in captivity.  Who are we to take that away from them and expect them to cooperate with and entertain humans???  It just is not right.

I can understand if a whale is injured and humans are rehabilitating the whale in hopes and plans of releasing the whale back into the ocean.  But to keep and breed whales in captivity should not be allowed.  Also, we can not learn much about the natural behaviors of whales who are in captivity because this is not their natural state.  We must study them in the wild to understand their natural habits.

May humans evolve enough consciously to stop this type of treatment of animals.

yesterday (Thursday)--28 pieces of trash.  half of that came from a styrofoam egg carton behind carlton place that had already started to break down into even smaller pieces.

Wednesday--Between 10-15 pieces of trash which included 4 beer bottles behind Carlton Place---these were just tossed out there b/c I had recently cleaned that area a few days ago.  There is a large piece of construction plastic that I have not yet collected b/c when I tried, there was a lizard on it.  I'm not afraid of lizards, but I'm worried there may also be spiders embedded there---I'll save that for my husband :-)

I did run into "a friend of the woods" who also walks her dog.  She said, "Oh you are the one who cleans this place up".  She walked with me and helped collect some trash.  It was nice to have the help.

Monday--74 pieces of trash---mostly from behind Carlton Place apartments.  Hopefully, that will soon be all cleaned up.  I can't wait to walk back there and come out empty handed!  Sometimes I find the most random things like a hallogen light bulb???

Hubby and I both walked the dog today.  I took a large trash bag and we headed to Carlton Place apartments.  We picked up 154 pieces of trash in no time flat.  Lots of the trash seems to be construction debris which includes a lot of plastic wrapping and ties.  However, there are so many packing peanuts that I pick up a few each time I walk---not sure where those are coming from, but I hope they are the biodegradable ones.

We did collect 8 beer bottles.  Sadly, there is still more trash, but the bag was full....