As readers of this blog know, I pick up a lot of litter during my rest runs. However, I haven't picked up any for several weeks, because the ground was covered with snow and I couldn't see the litter. With the advent of our warm temperatures yesterday and today, the snow is melting fast, and I'm seeing litter in quite a few places.
I picked up a lot of litter yesterday and today. There is still more litter out there, but I'll worry about that next Monday.
In case any of you are wondering why I pick up litter while most runners just ignore it, here are the reasons. I enjoy nature, and I like to run in areas away from streets, houses, cars, and people tending their yards. I don't, though, like to run in a city dump. So, I pick up litter so I'll have a nice view as I run. Another reason is that I moved to Utah from Massachusetts, and it is a New England custom to leave a hiking trail cleaner than it was before I hiked it.
In Michigan, I also learned as a Boy Scout to leave the campground in its original natural state. Vegas is fantastic about cleaning its streets and find we have very little litter, probably kept super-clean because we're a tourist city.
ReplyDeleteThe city streets around here are kept pretty clean, and when I run those streets I don't pick up litter. I figure the people who live there should do that. When I run the Parkway path, and before that when I ran the canal maintenance road, I pick up litter since nobody lives adjacent to those paths. Well, actually, people do live adjacent to the canal road, but the road is behind their lot and is usually separated from the lot by a fence. I think most of the litter is from house construction sites and is blown in by the wind. Kids do leave some litter as they walk to/from school or a friends house. Of course, none of the litter is from runners :)
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