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Current mood:  energetic
Last Sunday, Taylor and I went out for a few hours to clean up one of our beautiful back roads in West Chester, PA. It was a gorgeous day out, but pretty hot so we went out a little later in the day. This way we didn’t have to fight the heat as well. Armed with gardening gloves, a grabber and a bunch of biodegradable trash bags, we began cleaning up.
At a glance the woods lining the road had a few bottles here and there but once we got into it, it was like the find the objects game in the magazine “Highlights” (for any of you who remember that). As your picking up one can, three others would suddenly come into view buried under leaves and dirt. The Earth was trying to make the trash fit in.
There was a nearby stream littered with bags, soda cans and alcoholic containers galore. Seriously, we found more alcoholic beverages than anything else on the side of this snake like back road. Disturbing to say the least!
I saw this large bag in the stream. The print had pretty much washed away and mud had filled its pockets. I wrestled with this bag for over fifteen minutes trying to unhinge it from a rock. Part of me also wrestled with the fact that it had become part of the landscape now. Here was this trash with a tiny plant growing on top of it. At first I didn’t know if I should even move it but I scooped up the plant and the dirt it was growing out of and placed it on it’s rightful home on real dirt, not a plastic bag. It was interesting though to see how the Earth had worked around this bag. That sucker was really stuck in those rocks!
This is the bag after I got it out of the stream:
I honestly thought that I would be a grossed out by germs and “trash” but the reality was the Earth made everything seem sterile. Dirt and old leaves covered most of everything and I love dirt so it was no big deal…I still kept my gardening gloves on though for safe measure! It helped that it was a gorgeous day and a beautiful area but cleaning up the side of the road felt good in so many ways. It’s an active way to care for the Earth outside of recycling and using less electricity and so on. You are involved directly in giving the Earth a makeover and you can see your results immediately. It’s also so rewarding to see the faces of people driving by because you can tell you’ve made them think about it too.
Taylor and I Workin It!
We didn't get to do the whole road so we're going back to that road again soon to finish the sections we didn't get to. All in all we collected 4 bags of trash and recycling.
We really hope that you and your friends will join us in doing this when you can too. We’ll continue our efforts and continue to post pictures. We’d love to hear your stories and see your pictures too. That goes for anything related to giving the Earth a makeover:)
This is our "after" shot!
Please add myspace.com/projectearthmakeover and join us!
5:08 PM
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