Cleaning up other people’s messes
You don’t have to wait till Earth Day to tidy up your neighbourhood
The echo from the collision 100 metres down the road resounded so loudly in our house we immediately felt dread in the pits of our stomachs. Rushing outside, we found an extended family walking around a smashed SUV in a dazed state.
Luckily for them, the grill had protected them when it hit the side of a large deer. The animal was gone — to be found dead in a nearby field the next day — and car parts littered the ground for a long stretch.
Six months later, after a spring melt, I found myself meticulously collecting the various pieces of plastic from the shoulder of the road. Many of my neighbours had driven by the debris field daily, but it bugged me when I walked my dogs through the mess.
I could have left it there. How many others have decided to ignore similar scenes with an attitude that it is someone else’s problem? That is not how I live my life.
For instance, I am constantly baffled by idiots who complain when public works staff won’t come remove a bag of garbage or dead animal from their ditch or lawn. In one case, a city councillor resorted to picking up a dead rabbit on a Friday afternoon since the homeowner didn’t see it as his responsibility.
You see, I love my little stretch of country road and I hate seeing it polluted with throwaway coffee cups, plastic bottles, cigarette packs and grass-seed bags. Since I live en route to a landfill site, much of this stuff blows out along the way.
Most of it comes from people who just don’t care.
Every spring, I pull on gloves and collect the detritus along the sides of my road. In the worst year, 2022, I filled the back of our truck with car parts, buckets of bottles and a plethora of plastic bags.
It cost me a few bucks to dump it at the landfill site, a cost I was willing to bear for peace of mind and pride of place.
Over time, we’ve found pieces of furniture, dog toys, sex toys and one dead raccoon (the only item I’ve left behind). One day, I was so engrossed in digging broken glass out of the sandy shoulder that I didn’t notice my prankster husband sneaking over and driving away with the truck.
Why bother? Cleaning up our spaces is quite a Zen-like activity. And, when you’re done, it feels amazing — until some jerk throws a fresh beer can out the window and begins the cycle anew.
Recently, I connected with “my people” within the Clean-Up Peterborough Facebook group. It describes itself as a volunteer-run group of city and county residents who care about nature and want to keep our parks, trails and community clean all year long.
In other words, you don’t have to wait until Earth Day to join a crew at Jackson Park. Instead, we’re each claiming a space that we’ll tidy up by Saturday, April 13.
We’re not waiting for public works staff or other neighbours to step up. However, we are using resources, like the County of Peterborough’s Adopt-a-Road page, to co-ordinate our efforts. If you sign up there, you get gear to protect yourself and avoid landfill fees.
For those who think they pay taxes to have other people clean up after them, grow up. And get out to help us on April 13.