[Earth Day Edition] Conduct Your Own Trash Walk or Trash Blog

Trash doesn’t discriminate you can find it in any neighborhood, village or farm anywhere. Do you have an empty lot or field in your area that is an eyesore because of litter? This spring my husband and I encountered two types of litter scenes and decided to blog about it.

Elkhorn Litter

Rural Litter - April 17, 2011:

My husband and I recently moved to a more rural neighborhood in Elkhorn, NE., and after the snow melted this winter remnants of trash were uncovered everywhere. I picked up trash in lots around our house but didn’t blog about it. I decided to do it again but on a bigger scale. I chose my birthday and recruited my husband to assist. So, read on to see what we uncovered -- something we’ve termed as “wind litter.”

Found at Elkhorn site:  Wine bottle, water bottles, beer cans, Frisbee, empty hamster cage box, ribbon, cereal boxes, mail, plastic netting, pop cans, foam, Styrofoam, strands of plastic, trash bag box, plastic bags, beer box, Pringles carton, landscaping border, plastic and Styrofoam cups and food cans. 

Urban Litter - March 19, 2011:

Habitat Litter

Brian and I recently volunteered for an Alternative Spring Break event through the University of Nebraska at Omaha Service Learning Academy. We along with other volunteers partnered with Habitat for Humanity to prepare an inner-city site in North Omaha for a future house. Besides clearing brush we also picked up litter from the two lots.


Found at Habitat site:  Beer bottles, broken glass, plastic bags, fast food wrappers, straws, receipts, cups, car mats, pliers, lighter, paper plates, pop cans, hot dog wrapper, CD, oil cans, cigarette pack and parts from a lawnmower.

Trash Walk Synopsis

The inner-city lot had litter that varied a bit from our rural neighborhood litter. The litter at the inner-city site was more foot traffic but had some characteristics that the lot had been used as a dump site with oddities of broken glass and car mats. Biggest difference between our neighborhood and the Humanity house lots: there was not a lot of foot traffic trash we encountered like at the inner-city site. We found more blown remnants, which came from trash day, which my husband and I deemed “wind litter.” The saddest discovery included the fact we picked up two full trash bags of litter in our Elkhorn neighborhood. No matter that we called it “wind litter” -- it is still litter. This type of litter may not be of human doings but still creates an eyesore and is hazardous to wildlife.

I can’t take credit for this blog post. I borrowed this concept from a colleague -- Professor David Corbin. He’s done his own Trash Blog in Midtown Omaha for years. Read about it at http://web.me.com/dcorbin/sites/Blog/Blog.html

So, this Earth Day do what Dr. Corbin and we did and conduct your own Trash Walk or Trash Blog. If you’re up for the pop-we eco living challenge: go a step further and help fight litter in your community by throwing trash away properly before it becomes litter. Let’s keep the world beautiful not just on Earth Day but year round.

In celebration of the 41st anniversary of Earth Day population-we™ staffers will celebrate our love for planet earth with green posts the entire month of April! Thanks for reading our third Earth Day post. 

- population-we™ blog post by Becky Bohan Brown

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