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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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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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.

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')

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[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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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! 

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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 ...