See also, fascinating article under the title: "Plastic Gets a Do-Over: Breakthrough Discovery Recycles Plastic From the Inside Out" (News Release By Theresa Duque, newscenter.lbl.gov • May 6, 2019)
On my quite not infrequent 45-minute jog (stroll might be a better word) in NW Washington DC (down Tilden Street to Rock Creek Park; along the path in Rock Creek Park
to Porter Street; up Porter Street to Connecticut Avenue; jog ends at the Van Ness/ UDC metro station) I do my "citizen's thing" and pick up litter.
FYI, I jog (when I do jog rather than stroll, very slowly) with a bag (yes, I plead guilty: ... a plastic bag) in hand where I place the litter.
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As I stretch my aging muscles, have taken a special interest in picking up plastic water bottles left empty/half empty along my strollin'/joggin' way.
(Some of the plastic bottles, btw, are filled with urine, as I've noticed on several occasions on the south side of Tilden Street leading downhill to Rock Creek Park.)
May I note that the plastic bottles are not the only form of trash I pick up. The waste ranges (aside from its plastic bottled incarnations) from empty aluminum cans/glass bottles to used plastic prophylactics (which I delicately place in my trash bag with the aid of a branch found on a [thank God!] tree-filled environment).
FYI, below my accounting of yours truly's encounter with human-made "let's throw 'em out, wherever/whatever," objects. Pardon the gory details, but here's the trash/litter/junk I find (and pick up, when I physically can) on a near-daily basis on the streets/Rock Creek park of our glorious nation's capital.
[Note: Given my failing memory, I may be missing, in the below numerical assessment, a plastic water bottle or two.]
Needless to say, the bottles I stumble upon end up in the public garbage receptacles in the National Park/along Connecticut Avenue.
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image from
FYI, I jog (when I do jog rather than stroll, very slowly) with a bag (yes, I plead guilty: ... a plastic bag) in hand where I place the litter.
NW Washington DC image from
As I stretch my aging muscles, have taken a special interest in picking up plastic water bottles left empty/half empty along my strollin'/joggin' way.
(Some of the plastic bottles, btw, are filled with urine, as I've noticed on several occasions on the south side of Tilden Street leading downhill to Rock Creek Park.)
May I note that the plastic bottles are not the only form of trash I pick up. The waste ranges (aside from its plastic bottled incarnations) from empty aluminum cans/glass bottles to used plastic prophylactics (which I delicately place in my trash bag with the aid of a branch found on a [thank God!] tree-filled environment).
FYI, below my accounting of yours truly's encounter with human-made "let's throw 'em out, wherever/whatever," objects. Pardon the gory details, but here's the trash/litter/junk I find (and pick up, when I physically can) on a near-daily basis on the streets/Rock Creek park of our glorious nation's capital.
- Paper: napkins from fast-food joints; paper bags containing "junk food"; left-over pages from newspapers, probably unread
- Abandoned "reusable" coffee cups
- Cans: for sugar-loaded, sugar "free" sodas beer (unscientific survey: Corona is no. 1)
- Glass bottles: mostly for beer; booze; have not yet found a bottle for "sodas"
- Plastic zipper bags, mostly empty
- Remains from junk food containers: plastic knives/forks; ketchup/other food additives (to give the "food" taste) in relatively small plastic rectangular receptacles (half the size of my thumb)
- Miscellaneous plastic objects: combs, ball point pens, used prophylactics
- Cardboard: Hard to tell the origin, but probably from packages sent by "buy on the internet, we'll deliver."
- Circular plastic covers punctured, in the middle, for use with plastic straws for "soft" drinks, coffee (?), etc.
- Plastic straws (related to the above): Yes, they're still out there -- in our wide open American spaces -- despite the DC gov's efforts to limit their use
- empty cigarette packs
- Gloves: A real litter discovery for me! Amazing how many gloves (many of them, often only one glove, made of plastic) are left behind ...
- Scooters: Excuoooose me, but I consider scooters litter in a national park and especially if not unregulated on park trails/ sidewalks. Their drivers are violently -- yes, violently and narcissistically (correct spelling?) me-me-me first. The mentality behind the free-wheeling scoots: Just leave my groovy "thing" behind wherever/whenever on trails/sidewalks; in other words, to put it violently (if I may interpret the mentality) - f...k you (pointing the finger), I'll leave my thing wherever/whenever I f...kin' feel/like. (Note, BTW, that where the scooters "ride"are tax-payer funded sidewalks, where the Scooters abandon their thing (tax-free?) on D.C. streets; also in parks in pedestrian areas called trails
- Various car parts, left near a sidewalk/curb (especially car wheels, hard to fit in a city trash bin)
- Dog shit in (usually green) plastic wrappings left "wherever" by evidently well-intentioned animal masters who don't want to be accused of leaving shit behind without the proper plastic embellishment. I initially refused -- for health reasons -- to pick up this plastic-covered shit, but broke down and am now putting the plastic-covered poo in my plastic litter bag.
- Kids' toys, usually minuscule and made of plastic -- Is that not the most unacceptable litter "left behind"? Poor kids
- A painting, just discovered, far superior to his "Mona Lisa," by Leonardo da Vinci (just kiddin')
Needless to say, the bottles I stumble upon end up in the public garbage receptacles in the National Park/along Connecticut Avenue.
Date [missing dates mean no strolling/jogging on that day]; no. of plastic water bottles pick ups [on a given day, I may have miscounted, plus or minus, by a bottle or two]
4/22--15
4/24--8
4/25--5
4/26--6
4/27--2
5/3--7
5/4--5
5/5--4.5 (one bottle was broken in half)
5/6--3 (one bottle found on Conn Av after my jog)
5/7--6 (including one half-filled bottle on the roof of a car parked in Rock Creek Park; and an empty Perrier plastic bottle -- vive la France! -- along Porter Street)
5/9--2 (found on Connecticut Avenue)
5/11 -- 10!!! The most bottles found since 4/22! Porter Street wins with the most bottles!
5/12 -- 3
5/15 -- 2
5/17 -- 1
5/18 -- 2
5/5--4.5 (one bottle was broken in half)
5/6--3 (one bottle found on Conn Av after my jog)
5/7--6 (including one half-filled bottle on the roof of a car parked in Rock Creek Park; and an empty Perrier plastic bottle -- vive la France! -- along Porter Street)
5/9--2 (found on Connecticut Avenue)
5/11 -- 10!!! The most bottles found since 4/22! Porter Street wins with the most bottles!
5/12 -- 3
5/15 -- 2
5/17 -- 1
5/18 -- 2
P.S. But look at it on the bright side: We Americans are now evidently drinking a source of life, water, rather than sugary soda bubbly canned "drinks" (Hey, people, listen: things don't always go better with Coke) ...
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