OK, I expected something, but not this. A few weeks ago, on a cold but blessedly dry Saturday afternoon, I asked my husband to drop me off on Rte. 14 with some trash bags and a trash picker. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go — just somewhere with lots of trash I could remove. After driving around for a bit, I decided on a particularly litter-blitzed spot on the westbound lane between the two Washougal roundabouts. And right there, with cars whizzing by, one of my personal dreams came true: I could finally, finally clean up some of the trash that blights this road and day after day eats away at my soul.
With my pockets stuffed with garbage bags and a brand new trash-picker contraption in hand, I went wild. After an hour or so, I called my husband to pick me back up. We stuffed four bags of trash into the car to parcel out in our regular weekly trash pickup.
When I got home, I hopped on our local Nextdoor app, the social media platform for neighborhoods, and posted the photo you see above along with this message:
Well, after talking to every official I could think of about the trash along Rte. 14, I finally gave up and decided that, hey, I know how to pick up trash. This is what I collected this morning — four bags full, and that was along a fairly short stretch of highway, probably just 150 yards. What did I pick up? Sneaker insoles, Coke cans, chip bags, candy wrappers, the odd piece of clothing, gloves, face masks, tags that had clearly blown off cargo from backs of trucks, lots of random pieces of Styrofoam, milk bottles that had been lying in the grass so long they shattered when I tried to grab them. This work wasn’t dangerous due to traffic, in my opinion, but if citizens are going to pick up trash instead of the state or town, I’d love it if free bags could be supplied and full bags picked up and taken to the dump. As it is, I had to stuff these bursting bags into my own car and now will have to dispose of them in my weekly trash. I’ll be doing this again — at least until some official entity steps up and claims the job for themselves — so if you want to join me in beautifying our community, DM me.
My point wasn’t to crow about my mega-achievement, because it wasn’t such a big achievement. It was a small thing, in fact. Four bags! Not a big deal! My real point in going out there and then posting about it, I’m sorry to say, was actually a bit petty. I wanted to somehow underscore what we’ve come to. The trash is an ongoing eyesore, actually depression-inducing for regular travelers of this road, yet no one with authority to do anything about it is in fact doing anything. I know there are probably legitimate reasons for this, short-staffing and the pandemic among them; to make matters worse, the city doesn’t even have jurisdiction of the road, and that’s an important impediment to action. So I don’t blame anybody, really. The point is, I don’t see this getting better without the people most affected — that’s us — rolling up our sleeves and getting to work ourselves.
What did I pick up? Sneaker insoles, Coke cans, chip bags, candy wrappers, the odd piece of clothing, gloves, face masks, tags that had clearly blown off cargo from backs of trucks, lots of random pieces of Styrofoam, milk bottles that had been lying in the grass so long they shattered when I tried to grab them.
And maybe that’s exactly as it should be. When we work together to solve local problems, we grow our conviction that we can work together to solve problems. Within just a few days of my post, hundreds of neighbors and residents of nearby towns had responded, and I had dozens of offers of help. While I had intended to be an instigator, it didn’t occur to me that I might actually end up being an organizer — but that’s what happened.
And actually I’m thrilled. Within a day or two of this thunderclap response from my fellow citizens, we at ECCA decided to make trash cleanup our first community-wide project. It’s perfect in so many ways. If there’s one single topic that unites everyone — a topic about which is there is absolutely zero controversy — it’s trash on the roadways. Everyone hates it unabashedly; it has no defenders. (Yes, a few folks will shrug and say, “Why bother cleaning it up? In a month, it will just look terrible again!” Which has the same resonance for me as saying, “Why bother vacuuming your carpet? In a month, you’ll just be drowning in cat hair again!” Nope, we have no choice — we have to clean this up.)
If there’s one single topic that unites everyone — a topic about which is there is absolute zero controversy — it’s trash along the roadways. Everyone hates it unabashedly; it has no defenders.
Having lived in many parts of the country (the Midwest, the South, New England, and most recently the Washington, DC area) I live every day here in full appreciation — awe, really — of the natural beauty that surrounds us. It’s almost abnormal. And that’s why it’s doubly worth defending.
If you want to join us in working on this trash issue, go to: https://nextdoor.com/g/hs4zqwwdq/ It’s the Nextdoor group where we get down to brass tacks. (If you’re not on Nextdoor, you’ll have to join before you can get into the group.) We discuss the Adopt-a-Highway program that people often bring up as a solution to our problem, Vancouver’s litter-collection programs, our own plans, and what’s turning into an ongoing quest for supplies and places to deposit litter once we collect it. Or go here, to the ECCA projects page.
Postscript: Our first group trash clean-up was March 5, and groups have gone out almost every weekend since then. As of early May, we have cleaned up over 2,000 lbs. trash. Read about it here. And Rte. 14, I have to say, is looking just a bit better.
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