Anyone else doing road litter cleanups?

[Retired To Win]

A while ago, I started a forum thread bemoaning how people litter the roadways (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/are-you-as-sick-of-litterbugs-as-i-am/msg761550/#msg761550).  Since then, I've taken it upon myself to do something about all the litter, and I am wondering if anyone else is doing anything similar.

Since I hike several times a week, I have taken to doing some of those hikes as "roadside trash walks."  I set off from my house (in a very low population density rural area) with a plastic grocery shopping bag full of plastic grocery shopping bags.  I pick up trash as I go, and leave the tied off filled bags on the road shoulder.  When I get the sense that there are 20 or so bags out there, I pick them up in my truck and take them to the dump. (So far, I've filled and disposed of some 60-plus filled trash bags.)

Essentially, I have personally adopted a particular set of road stretches near my house to try to clean up and keep that way.  I'm doing it because I enjoy walking or driving along a clean rural road, and conversely get mightily pissed off when I see styrofoam cups, cans and bottles and what not messing up "my" walking roads.

A lot of people driving by me while I'm doing these walks honk or give me a thumbs up.  A couple have actually stopped to say thanks.  (At least no one has thrown a bottle at me!)  So far, it's all good.

Is anyone else doing anything like this?

[Pylon]

Good for you! If only more people realized where their trash actually ends up and didn't just leave it lying all over.

I have started doing this when I walk to work. It's only a mile or so in a very urban area near a high school. It seems a lot of the kids discard all their trash as they walk to and from school. I have started to pick up after them because I also like to walk/ride along a clean road.

[velocistar237]

I saw this a couple weeks ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/3mucl4/lpt_picking_up_trash_is_a_life_changing_hobby/

My daughter and I filled 2 small plastic grocery bags while hiking this weekend for the diy.org Camper badge Protect the Wild activity.

[Tick-Tock]

My husband and I do this in our neighborhood. I enjoy it; it gives an extra purpose to the walk. And just yesterday as I walked home from the bus I collected a can and two bottles for recycling and picked up a piece of metal from a crosswalk that probably would have pierced someone's tire.

[enigmaT120]

I just do the one our watershed council sponsers.  It's actually several miles from anywhere I walk. 

[Retired To Win]

I just do the one our watershed council sponsors.  It's actually several miles from anywhere I walk.

I do those as well.  (In fact, I'll be participating in one this Saturday.)  But they are usually just annual events.  I feel the need -- and have the opportunity -- to be more frequent in my road litter cleanup efforts.  Because I am doing this in my own immediate neighborhood, it's a much more personal thing for me. (I hate having "my" roads trashed.)

[AlwaysBeenASaver]

Thank you to all of you for picking up trash! I also do this and it's nice to see that so many others do too. I pick up trash on the road shoulder along my property, and out of the creek which flows to the ocean, and periodically go to sponsored beach cleanups. However I've been slacking in these areas and need to step it up again, thanks for the reminder!

[zephyr911]

I've randomly picked up trash since late childhood. I also pull weeds in the gutters on my street if the owners/residents of the houses don't, and maintain a passageway through the trees two blocks away that gets littered with trash and overgrown with thorny weeds from the public lands on both sides.

[lizzzi]

Yes, I always pick up the litter where I take my walks.(My own road, and the park walking trails across from my road.)  I'll put it either into the park's trash cans, or take it home to my own trash container...whichever happens to be closer. Hate litter. Hate, hate, hate, hate litter.

[enki]

So far, my cleanup measures have stopped at the property lines. I do make sure the creek on our land is clean though. I live in a rural area and we get a steady stream of garbage that collects in our yard. Thank all of you who pick up after those who don't.

[Urchina]

The humorist and writer David Sedaris does this in the little British town where he lives.  Apparently he's picked up so much roadside trash that they named a township garbage truck after him. 

I also pick up trash when I'm out walking,  but I'm glad to say we live in a very clean area.

[ClaycordJCA]

I'm another who can't help but pick up trash on my walks/hikes. Need to be a bit more organized and take a bag the next time I go. Usually it is holding on to the trash until I reach the trash recepticle in one of the local parks on the city's trail system.

[enigmaT120]

So who wants to outlaw filtered cigarettes?   Me.  When  I smoke I don't get the pansy filtered ones anyway. 

[MEER]

Good for you! We always do this on walks in the neighbourhood and hikes. Fortunately, we don't find too much.