Picking up LitterThis week, I picked up trash everyday Monday - Sunday. I usually pick up trash every week, but I've been putting it off lately.
I went to 7 different locations; 5 near my home and 2 different parks. To pick up the trash, I used my reusable trash bag and gloves from 4Ocean, and a trash grabber I had from Amazon. Once I had a full bag, I returned home and transferred the trash into a biodegradable trash bag that would go into our garbage bin. The 4Ocean bag is much more durable and can hold more trash than a regular trash bag, which is why I purchased it. The gloves provide safety and sanitation, and the trash grabber allows me to not bend over as much. Based on what I picked up, cigarette butts were at the top. This is also the case worldwide, with cigarettes being the most littered item, 4.5 trillion each year to be exact. Cigarettes are 98% plastic, and can take up to 1000 years to decompose. Aside from the air and land pollution, cigarettes also leach toxic chemicals into water like arsenic, lead, & copper, which harms aquatic life. Following in the footsteps of cigarette butts, the second-most littered item I found was cigarette box wrappers. Notable mentions include: plastic bags, plastic straws, straw wrappers, plastic bottles, lottery cards, food wrappers, napkins, receipts, and more. In the end, I ended up with 4 full trash bags. I spent about 45 minutes on average each day picking up litter, and by doing so I prevented tons of trash from entering rivers and oceans, and helped create a cleaner, safer, and healthier environment for wildlife as well as humans. It is sad seeing so much trash outside but it is also rewarding knowing the impact I'm making.
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