Christina with fishing line above after releasing a bird.
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 we came up 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 pretty good exercise.
- It is a chance to get fresh air outdoors.
- It spreads awareness – other people notice our activities when we do it in a group.
- It keeps the healthy obsession for better environmental stewardship 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.
We collaborate with Friends of Stewart Park, Ithaca Rotary Club, Paddle-N-More, Cayuga Watershed Network 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!
Zero Waste Ithaca 