Sunday, May 19, 2019

Updated 5/20/2019: Breaking News!!! On DC Litter Record Pick-up (the LPU initiative) in the Imperial Capital!


See also: an encouraging article under the title: "Plastic Gets a Do-Over: Breakthrough Discovery Recycles Plastic From the Inside Out." See also (1)

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image from

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

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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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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, the shit is" 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:
  • Receipts/bills; paper/paper "tissues": napkins from fast-food joints; paper bags containing "junk food"; left-over pages from newspapers, probably unread; "colorful" wrappings from candy manufacturers; cellophane plastic wrap 
  • Dumped-wherever on-the street/sidewalk no longer "reusable" disposable coffee cups (sorry: I don't know: what are they exactly made of?)
  • Circular plastic lids punctured, in the middle, for use with plastic straws for "soft" drinks, cold 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.
Image result for Zach Rybarczyk

Zach Rybarczyk, who works for the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, inspects restaurants in Union Station on Jan. 8 to see whether they are still using plastic straws after the city’s ban went into effect this year. Cava passed its inspection. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)
  • Plastic zipper bags (I suspect for SuperMarkerts), mostly empty
  • Glass bottles (mostly for beer); Corona appears to be a favorite, often with empty bottles left on the street/sidewalk/wooded area in a six-pack container
  • Remains from junk food containers: plastic knives/forks; ketchup/other food additives (to give the "food" taste) in relatively small white plastic (not always) rectangular receptacles (half the size of my thumb) with a "slip-off" cover
  • Other miscellaneous plastic/elastic objects: combs, ball point pens, used prophylactics, credit cards, rubber bands
  • Cardboard: Hard to tell the origin, but probably from packages sent by "buy on the internet, we'll deliver to you at your home."
  • Empty cigarette packs, mostly of the "menthol" type; my bad: I don't pick up cigarette butts
  • 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 [I gently push these unregulated atrocious gimmicks, exploiting (tax-free?) public space, off sidewalks -- not to speak off trails in Rock Creek Park): 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 (I can't think of another word) 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, are not where the scooters "ride"on 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/on 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 self-portrait (just discovered in Rock Creek Park by yours truly -- not in a trash can, but on a plastic-bottle/other litter filled sidewalk) by Leonardo da Vinci (just kiddin')

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo image from

[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.

***

BUT NOW THE SERIOUS PART!

Enjoy the Statistics! 

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!

4/22-5/18 --81.5 empty/half empty H20 plastic bottles picked up in the NW section of the Imperial Capital! A World Record!!! (hah, hah, hah)

(Please correct my math, unprofessional reporting) 
No wonder USA is no. 1! 

***

5/19--1, during a stroll on Connecticut avenue
5/20--4

P.S. And 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) ... Now, if we could only gastronomically chew on our omnipresent plastic in a family-friendly restaurant, tastier than ever if spiced with a a popular Heinz sauce ...

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