GreenDera

Doing my part to help prevent garbage buildup and marine debris, aka plastic pollution. How? Picking up other peoples trash before it can get to the ocean.

[greendera-blog]

Wet Shoes, Wet Plastic

Went back to the stretch of woods between the Cooper River and Coles Mill Road yesterday. It was a mess - made so by the torrential downpours we had day before. The water level was higher than normal. Where the trail usually is on the opposite side, it was knee deep. So, it made it for an interesting time to try to collect trash along the edge of the river.

But there is work to be done, and since I'm the only one doing it, I'm not gonna let a little bit of water stop me. I definitely wasn't prepared to get stuff out of the water though. If I had a kayak, I would have paddled in the river to scoop stuff up, but I don't, so that sucks. I could see plenty of trash out on that middle island that I couldn't get to. And that is on top of the trash that was caught out in the water that I just couldn't reach with sticks.

There was TONS of styrafoam floating around. Pieces of Dunkin Donuts cups in endless abundance. I don't believe that people still use that shit. Since I know we can't rely on the consumer to actually dispose of their trash responsibly, I think that business should have to have more responsibility for their packaging. Imagine a world were companies stopped using plastic to avoid fines from having their packaging littering the streets. That would be something... Right between the river and the road, the ground is lower, so during storms or freak high tides, that fills up, too. I hope too much trash didn't get swept out into the river. I got most of it cleaned up last week, but not all of it. Regardless, I still got a lot more trash out of there, including some freshly tossed bottles and cans up by the road.

Summary:

6 full bags of recyclables 2 full bags of trash 1 trashcan 1 life preserver 1 tick 1 weird huge rusted metal mystery item 1 hypodermic needle (in a bottle) 2 joggers giving me weird looks 4 ducks hanging out 1 fortune (i should play the numbers) 1 pair of new puncture resistant gloves 2 bic pens

[greendera-blog]

Fishing Around

Decided to check into the county to see if this area I'm currently cleaning is actually part of the county park system. First I checked the Camden County Parks website. Unfortunately, they seem only interested in listing their Concerts and Events. There is no map of their parks or any other pertinent information.

So I resorted to this google map. If all is correct, apparently this tiny forgotten patch of river is NOT a part of the county park system. Bummer, I guess. Not that it would really make a difference. I'm the only person that has cleaned it in probably 40 years.

[greendera-blog]

Two Hands, Four Hours

I went back down to Coles Mill Road today to keep cleaning by the Cooper River. After I finished cleaning last week, I saw that I still had a lot of work to do along the south side of the river. Today I decided to start on the west side of that stretch of road. The strip of land between the street and the river is a lot wider than on the other end. I planned to get all the way down to where I stopped last week, but little did I know, I was in for a trash-suprise.

Its such a smaller area, but the amount of trash was phenominally larger. Last week I only filled up 2 or three bags. This time I filled 9 bags full of cans and bottles, and 5 bags full of trash, in a much smaller zone. Apparently this has been a trash throw-off point for a long time. I put together quite a timeline based off the different products I picked up. Soda bottles from back before they came in plastic bottles or cans, then cans and beer bottles with the pull-off tabs, and the todays plastic bottles, cans and 40oz bottles. I'm also a little worried because the only way most of that trash gets down there is from people throwing it out of their cars, and the amount of beer bottles and cans would indicate a lot of drunk drivers.

Looking at the task before me, I decided that it would be easiest if I worked in sections and made piles that I could go around and pick up later. I ended up with a lot of piles of garbage. Unfortunately, a huge problem that I had was that since apparently this area has never been cleaned, there are layers of fallen leaves and garbage, especially up by the road. I was walking in leaves, only to hear the crunching of plastic under my feet every other step. And on top of that, literally, the people that live across the street use this area as a place to dump their lawn clippings and bush trimmings. Who knows how much trash is buried down there.

I wasn't expecting this much. I had trouble fitting all the bags into my car. I needed to bring all this home to make sure it goes into the trash and recycling. This is a daunting task. How many other areas like this are there, where roads run parallel to rivers and people just toss trash into the woods?

Summary:

9 bags full of glass and plastic bottles and cans 5 bags full of rubbish - plastic food and candy wrappers 1 front end of a car: shattered bumper, headlight, license plate and one axle 18 scrapes and punctures from sticker bushes 1 tick on my arm 11 cyclists enjoying their afternoon and giving me weird looks 1 woman walking her child in a stroller that scowled at me pretty hard 1 couple out for a jog, confused at why I was down in the woods

1 older cyclist who stopped and verbally applauded me for my efforts and wanted to know if the county was helping me dispose of the trash (no). He filled me in on some info, including that this land is actually a county park, and that there used to be a mill down by the water back in the early 1900s, thus the name of the road. He said if was physically able to, he'd be doing the same thing.

One thing that bummed me out: this birds nest that is 50% plastic

I was pretty stoked to find out about the Two Hands Project, a collaborative effort to clean the world. Its nice to know that there are other people that are out to make the same positive changes in the world that I am. Check out their site, and "Like" them on facebook. And most of all, get involved!

[greendera-blog]

Clean Up Green Up

Today I decided to take myself to task for my thoughts. I've been thinking a lot the last couple months about how gross it is that people constantly toss trash out their car windows. I've been reading a lot about the 5 gyres / ocean garbage patches, "marine debris", aka plastic in the ocean, and a tons of other stuff like that. I've been reading a lot in the news about politicians pushing back against environmental policies, about plastic coalitions filing suit against counties and towns and cities that have banned single use plastics, and I'm fed up.

So today I decided it was my turn to actually get involved, rather than just think about it. I went down to where the Cooper River narrows, along Coles Mill Road by Grove Street, and decided that I was going to pick up as much trash as I could along the water. Ultimate goal? To keep the trash from following the Cooper River to the Delaware River, then to the Atlantic.

I cleaned up the south side of the creek, from Grove Street, about halfway up Coles Mill Road (where its parallel to the creek). When I was walking up the road to go home with my bag of recyclables, I saw the half that I didn't get to clean up today, which probably had about 10 times more trash than I picked up today. The task I've chosen is literally putting me to the task. See below for my summary and pictures.

Summary: 1 10 gallon bag filled with bottles / cans removed 1 10 gallon bag filled with garbage removed 1 couch cushion removed from the waterline 1 hub cap removed 25 times getting stuck in prickly bushes 6 plastic containers (milk jugs, buckets, etc.) removed from muddy waterline 1 lady on a bike said "thank you" 5 bros jogging down the street gave me weird looks 1 car full of teens honked and waved (jokingly or stoked, i dont know) 2 hours spent