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Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

sixstepstobetterhealth.com

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Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#21

Post by Intermernet »

ajxs wrote: post #18

I always bring bags/gloves/grabber with me whenever I visit the local national park. The rubbish is particularly bad in popular picnic spots, like the areas around Audley^1. The NPWS staff do a great job of keeping the parks clean, but they can't get everything. You'd be shocked how quickly you can fill a garbage bag on a short walk. The most common items by far are disposable coffee cups and cigarette packets (with…

Thanks mate, glad I'm not alone doing this.

When my brother and I were young, my parents used to pay us 5 cents for every piece of rubbish we picked up on bushwalks. We got a few dollars to buy the things they would have invariably bought for us anyway, and the walking tracks became, for at least an hour or so, free from garbage.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#22

Post by Intermernet »

mulmen wrote: post #16
bombcar wrote: post #6

Be sure to check the second page: https://www.sixstepstobetterhealth.com/money.html If every person picked up a piece of litter a day, the world would be exceptionally cleaner quite quickly. I make a point to pick up any I see; you can carry dog waste bags if you're scared to touch things.

What’s the safe way to handle heroin needles?

Have a sharps disposal container, wear gloves, avoid the pointy bit, sanitise regularly.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#23

Post by colinbartlett »

sebmellen wrote: post #14

Perhaps the coolest website I’ve seen this year. The amount of dedication is incredible. If you look at this cynically you will get nowhere, but if you realize something like this can inspire the next Boyan Slat, it’s fantastic.

I thought so, too. I randomly found this on Reddit and it struck a chord with me, especially as an urban dweller that absolutely despises litter and litterers.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#24

Post by Forgeties79 »

bombcar wrote: post #11
OutOfHere wrote: post #7

I don't understand why the local governments do such a poor job at cleaning litter. Do they not understand how bad it is? In NYC, the Bronx is utterly filthy.

It's a cost center that people don't want to fund. And in some places like NYC you'd have to rival the police budget to make a dent in it.

Would you though? As somebody else pointed out it could be a good public works/job creation program. You could probably put 4-5 people to work cleaning up a year for less than 1 cop. I’m kind of making up numbers here but I feel like that can’t be too far off what with salary, pension, equipment, etc.

A few hundred people dedicated to taking care of litter would likely make a difference anywhere. You can get that for far less than $6 billion. You could pay 1000 people $1000/day to do it and you’d be at $365mill.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#25

Post by rmunn »

autoexec wrote: post #13
somebehemoth wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 bibles for another example. I have seen bibles a lot of places, but never as trash. He describes his giant ashtray and the tale of the tens of thousands of other pieces of trash he picked up on his way to one million cigarette butts. I love this guy and his website. This is what we gray beards mean when we speak of the Internet of old.

I was surprised by the number of bibles too! I don't think I've ever seen one as litter (not counting those left in hotel rooms), but I've seen other kinds of religious literature like tracts, booklets, and watchtower magazines

That's the kind of thing that people like to hand out to people walking by. Many people, if handed a booklet they didn't actually want to read, will just toss it on the ground.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#26

Post by zdragnar »

rmunn wrote: post #25
autoexec wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised by the number of bibles too! I don't think I've ever seen one as litter (not counting those left in hotel rooms), but I've seen other kinds of religious literature like tracts, booklets, and watchtower magazines

That's the kind of thing that people like to hand out to people walking by. Many people, if handed a booklet they didn't actually want to read, will just toss it on the ground.

Those people are the worst. If you don't want something, don't take it. Don't make it everyone else's problem by littering.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#27

Post by SoftTalker »

Intermernet wrote: post #22
mulmen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the safe way to handle heroin needles?

Have a sharps disposal container, wear gloves, avoid the pointy bit, sanitise regularly.

Seem to me if you're picking up litter possibly including needles/syringes you don't want the sort of complicated sharps containers you see at a medical clinic, where you have to operate some sort of trap door mechanism.

You want something simple, like a bucket, maybe with a funnel type opening, so that you can pick up the syringe with a grab tool and just drop it into the container with a minimum of handling or manuvering required.

Doctors and nurses who are practiced at handling sharps still stick themselves occasionally. You really don't want to touch them with your hands, even with gloved hands.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#28

Post by jrmg »

SoftTalker wrote: post #27
Intermernet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a sharps disposal container, wear gloves, avoid the pointy bit, sanitise regularly.

Seem to me if you're picking up litter possibly including needles/syringes you don't want the sort of complicated sharps containers you see at a medical clinic, where you have to operate some sort of trap door mechanism. You want something simple, like a bucket, maybe with a funnel type opening, so that you can pick up the syringe with a grab tool and just drop it into the container with a minimum of handling or manu…

Our local municipal waste authority recommends using laundry detergent liquid bottles as sharps containers.

Seems the FDA agrees they’re suitable: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/safely-using-sharps-need...

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#29

Post by true_religion »

SoftTalker wrote: post #27
Intermernet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a sharps disposal container, wear gloves, avoid the pointy bit, sanitise regularly.

Seem to me if you're picking up litter possibly including needles/syringes you don't want the sort of complicated sharps containers you see at a medical clinic, where you have to operate some sort of trap door mechanism. You want something simple, like a bucket, maybe with a funnel type opening, so that you can pick up the syringe with a grab tool and just drop it into the container with a minimum of handling or manu…

You mean something like this? https://store.stericycle.com/8-2-quart-bd-sharps-container/3...

They’re pretty common in nursing homes in my area.

Re: Picking Up a Zillion Pieces of Litter

#30

Post by chihuahua »

I frequently walk 20 minutes from my house to a trailhead. Along the way, I often see annoying trash. Somehow, a freeway underpass (a road going underneath I-90) seems to be catnip to people who want to throw trash out of their cars.

Eventually I got fed up and picked up a few bags full of trash. Then I found another guy nearby who also likes picking up trash, so we had a few get-togethers where we collect 3 trash bags each. He has a connection with our city sanitation department, so they come and pick up the bags.

The same guy also runs a once-a-month litter pick up event where we meet at the post office and spend an hour picking up trash. He provides hi-viz vests, trash bags, and grabbers. Usually about 10 people show up.

Overall it puts me in a bad mood to see so much trash thrown out by shitty people.

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