Pet Peeves

Last spring, my husband and I cleaned up a stretch of road near our house. We spent about 45 minutes picking up trash, but mostly recycling. The road side was clear for about 6 weeks. Then a bottle appeared. Then another. Then a takeout container. A half-full plastic bottle of Dr. Pepper. Now it looks like we'd never done anything there at all.

Am I the only one depressed by this?

I've been trying to stay positive. And for the most part, I've been excitedly learning about a new type of education that has great results for students and connects schools and the community with the environment. It's called place-based/community-based education, and it centers around breaking down walls in the community by having students apply what they're learning in school to real-world problems, such as a physics class using their knowledge to help re-build stairs on a local town trail. The idea of getting students out there and connecting people in the community to them is so exciting. It's changed the way I think about how I teach, and given me some interesting ideas I'd like to try out- once I get a classroom of my own.

Why is it that people litter? Or keep old junked cars in their yard? Or just leave crap laying around in piles, rusting and molding until kingdom come? Why don't people recycle? Is it really so hard to toss your empty bottles in one bin and paper in another and take those to the same place you haul your trash?

Why don't people care?

Earth Day cleanup

One of my biggest pet peeves is LITTER. I often wonder why people do it. So here are some reasons I think people litter:

1. Stuff falls off their truck on the way to the landfill
2. They have no room in their car trash bag
3. They are LAZY
4. They don't care

I am pretty sure that people are either #3 or #4. It really irks me- I mean, is it really SO hard to take the trash home, throw it in the can, and then have that hauled off to the landfill?

Anyhow, my husband and I decided for Earth Day to go and clean up a roadside near our house. We drive by it every day, and it really bothered me to see all the plastic bottles and other debris. So we spend about 40 minutes picking up- he collected trash, I collected recyclables.

We collected 1 trash bag of each. There was less trash than recycling, but about 90% of what we collected was plastic bottles.

All this for 40 minutes worth of picking up.

It's sickening, isn't it?

It's really not that hard...put your trash in the trash, put your recycling in the recycling bin!!