Cleanups through September

To the Editor:

I’m pleased to see that Coastal Cleanup Day has expanded to a month of Saturdays in September, and that we are encouraged to pick up trash in our neighborhoods. I propose residents take five minutes each week, all year round to walk our property that abuts roads and dispose of the accumulated trash. That way it doesn’t build up and get so gross!

I regularly ride my bike around the valley and am amazed, appalled and disheartened by the amount of debris scattered on the sides of our community roads. Most prominent in the litter are (recyclable) 16oz. plastic water bottles. I pick up about 4 each week. Other common litter items are beer, soda and “energy drink” cans and bottles, fast food cups, utensils and wrappings, plastic and cardboard case containers, cardboard boxes, items of clothing (from underwear to sweatshirts), plastic packing material, lighters, candy wrappers, cigarette packs and empty plastic ice bags. I’ve also found three dead animals (2 dogs and a cat) wrapped in plastic bags. And there’s currently a hot water heater littering Eastside Road if anyone cares to pick it up.

Since Covid, there are now masks and latex gloves, more plastic bags and take-out containers, and hard alcohol bottles tossed on the side of the road.

Why do we do this to our community? Out of sight out of mind? Some of this garbage winds up in the creeks, rivers and ocean where it kills birds, fish and sea mammals. It accumulates in the “Great Pacific garbage patch,” roughly 600,000 square miles of nonbiodegradable micro plastics that enter our bloodstream when we eat seafood.

I’d like to thank all the considerate drivers who share the road so generously with bicyclists. Now, can we just stop littering? — Robin Goldner, Willits