Hi All Master Recycler John Fischer here with KLCC's Living Less Unsustainably.
Picking up trash can be a lot of work - and a lot of fun - especially when the trash is under 50 feet of water. A friend I have known for 50 years and I recently hauled 100 pounds of scuba gear on a bike trailer up to what is the headwaters of the Willamette River for 10 months each year to look for a fishing pole yanked out of my 12-year-old daughter's hand by a big fish 30 years ago.
Spoiler alert - we didn't find the pole - or the fish, but we did haul out cans and bottles, fishing line, broken boat pieces, plastic sheeting and a mysterious rusty two foot iron corkscrew.
I always try to leave the places I visit cleaner than I found them. Even miles in from the trailhead, fishing line, cigarette butts and bits of micro trash from energy bar wrappers and the like are easy to find - and remove.
Backcountry trash removal is always an adventure - on this excursion, we had to move a fallen rotten log three feet in diameter off the trail to complete our trip. I've put some pictures on the KLCC website.
Oregon is well known for its organized beach clean ups, and many sections of highway have groups or individuals who keep them tidy.
But you can pick up trash almost anywhere - in front of your house, on a walk around the block, or in our wonderful parks.
My favorite, oft repeated, but always instructional story involves a car (and truck) camping site in Nevada's Toiyabe mountains. Snow covered peaks, massive great basin vistas, and a thousand bottle caps and cigarette butts. Twenty minutes of work left the place pristine ( ok, less trashy ), and perhaps made it harder for the next smoker to throw that first butt on the ground - or not. Hey, I'll have something to do next time I visit.
I'm John Fischer with Living Less Unsustainably.
