The photograph above is Ithaca’s West Village children after a massive trash pickup in the neighborhood Yayoi organized with her son Yuuki in 2012. He is the boy with an umbrella. We organize volunteer litter cleanups with basic safety guidance.
We’d like to share the reasons why we pick up trash below. It almost seems pointless to continue in the utter deluge of outdoor trash. Here is what ZWI members came up with from a discussion in our group.
10 Reasons why we keep picking trash
We pick trash because ..
- It is an opportunity for being social outdoors, and meeting the like-minded people in person .
- It is a good exercise – sometimes a serious exercise, depending on what you are dealing with.
- It is a chance to get fresh air outdoors.
- It spreads awareness in the community – other people notice our activities when we do it as a group.
- It keeps the healthy obsession for better environment alive.
- It helps us become witnesses to the sordid trash situation outdoors.
- It does clean up streets, even a little at a time.
- It motivates us to call for systemic policy changes.
- We find free useful stuff and intriguing objects for curio shelves.
- It gives the area a good reset. A place with a lot of trash is likely to get even more trash with people not caring. A place that is recently picked up may help to discourage some people from littering.
Do you have more? Let us know and we’ll add them!
Join us for our trash pickups and other events – check our event page and follow our social media for event announcements.
Check out some great photos by Rich.
We collaborate with Friends of Stewart Park, Ithaca Rotary Club, Paddle-N-More, Cayuga Watershed Network, and Ithaca College for trash pickups. We go to pick up trash on kayaks once a year thanks to an amazing local outfitter, Paddle-N-More who kindly let us use their kayaks for the work.
We also give huge shout-outs to Ithaca’s original Glorious Trash Birds that has been picking trash over a decade in our area!
