LITTER

not the litter of the kitty kind.

POLLUTION is a problem! It's the introduction of unnatural materials to biological systems. It is an act that I cannot understand, as I don't know who else than myself would be responsible for properly disposing of my mess. On March 13, 2010 went up and down my block, 24th and Folsom St. in SF, CA., and I collected all the trash I could see (on both sides of the street). I ended up picking 16.5lbs of trash!! The most notable and irritating items were bottle caps. They get stuck in the soil of planter boxes and can be painful to step on. there were a considerable amount of cigarette butts, and another leader in abundance were plastic food wrappings. Additionally there was a considerable amount of broken glass, which is an item particularly unsettling in an area where kids are allowed freedom. There is a park right down the street and a school on the next block, and this was the most upsetting item for me. The health and appearance of our neighborhoods are the result of a community effort, and this showed there was not a lot of consideration for that among the public.

I thought about increasing participation in cleanup and making this an experiment, to test if the amount of garbage would be the same week after week or in different areas of the city, but alas nothing came of that and I have not gone out to collect garbage since. Hopefully my actions will at least be startling, sixteen pounds of trash is quite a lot.