A few weekends ago, I volunteered at my office's river cleanup event at Gravelly Point Park. Everyone picked up a pair of gloves and a grabber-picker-upper-thingy (as seen on TV). I looked around and all I saw was pristine park land. "Do we even need to be here? Is this all for show?" I thought as I picked up individual cigarette butts off the ground to look busy.
Then we got closer to the river - plastic and glass bottles dotted the shore line, along with all sorts of debris. A small patch of woods nearby looked like this:
Disheartening, to say the least. Why do people walk away and leave their trash without a second thought? Maybe they think, "Oh, those helpful corporate volunteers will clean this bottle up next year. No worries."
The woods near Hains Point must be a party spot. I felt like an archaeologist. I would clean up a pile of Heineken bottles, below that there would be remnants of the Corona era. Then a layer of leaves, and I'd discover the Coors Light eon. Artifacts from parties past.
