December TRASH-a-thon Clean Ups

We did two cleanups in December! Yes, TWO!!!

Our first clean up was on December 4th. With the help of 10 volunteers, we cleaned up 1.34 miles of roadway. This is the longest  road that we have cleaned up so far and it took us over 4 hrs. We were really tired after that! Total weight of trash collected this time was 320 pounds. We had a special volunteer, Rachael Jacquelin, who is the Watershed Outreach Coordinator for the Satilla Riverkeeper, join us. We are thankful for her and her friend’s help and support!

My mom and dad did the second clean up on December 26th. For this clean up, we did not ask for volunteers, because this 0.5-mile part of the road is too busy and dangerous for kids. Guess what? My mom and dad picked up 955 cigarette butts! Wow, that is a lot of cigarette butts! Total weight of trash collected this time was 23.5 pounds.

If you are curious like me, you are probably wondering what kinds of stuff we have found so far. To date, we have cleaned up a total of 3.6 miles and disposed of 2,153 pounds of trash! Here are the most common items we have recorded so far. With 2017 just around the corner, I decided to list the top 17 items we found. My mom showed me how to calculate the percentage and put them in order, from most common to least.

As you can see, we have a big problem with cigarette butts, beverage containers, food wrappers, and other single use items. But we also have a problem with dumping. Furniture, car parts, and construction materials were a common sight on the big dirt road we cleaned up. This makes me so sad. I hope people see how much trash we produce and throw away, so they will want to make our community more beautiful and safer for everyone.

And that wraps up 2016, everyone. Time to keep marching on to the County Commissioners Office in 2017!