Garbage dump - take it home, tourists

No, we're not a garbage dump. Our county limits garbage to two bags per week. Otherwise, we can purchase extra tickets for them. This is why we pay our taxes, for services like this.

I go ditch diving 3 or 4 times a year to pick up the crap other people chuck out of their vehicle. No one likes to see this at the side of a highway. Garbage attracts the critters; crows, raccoons; and the bears simply turn boxes over.

That said, there are weekend tourists who like to dump their garbage with a local home's garbage at the end of our driveways. I caught one guy doing it once. He moved on from ours and went up to the next house. I wish I'd gotten his licence plate #.

I am so very angry. He doesn't deserve this.

Garbage provides a risk for critters, too.

Hubby is careful about the recycling. He washes everything to prevent bugs and critters from being attracted to it. He separates out kitchen garbage from other garbage. I put out the recycling on Sunday night (for Monday morning), as well as the non-kitchen stuff in a metal garbage can. This prevents the dang crows, or the bears, from getting into it. We know from Muskoka how bad the bears can be.

Unfortunately, in Cottage Country, the arse tourists think they can dump their garbage with ours and it won't hurt anyone. This is not true. I remember during the Toronto garbage strike, tourists would fill parks garbage cans with their refuse. Disgusting and horrible for both residents and animals.

Hubby, trying to keep up his physical fitness routine, despite not feeling very well, he took off at 7 a.m. with the remaining kitchen garbage. He found that someone had dumped a bag of garbage, and Butch Raccoon had gotten into it. It looked like raccoons. I told him to hustle off to swimming and I would take care of it.

This is the mess hubby found this morning. Gross.

Donning gloves, as well as bug protection, I went out to pick up the mess. This arse had dumped a garbage bag, including styrofoam meat trays, recycling, hot dog wrappers, lots of fruit remains, and a plastic bag full of blood-soaked paper towels, with our garbage. I hope he gets sepsis. It would serve him right.

This someone had a new boat, too, as there was an instruction booklet. I checked for any identification, but it had to be a weekend tourist at Murphys Point Park.

This is perfect for attracting critters. They love the smell of meat packages. This is what bears do: overturn boxes when they are hungry.

There are lots of bears about.

Bala Bear did this!
A heavy box for weekend garbage.

This is what raccoons do!
They lick the cans.

Ditch diggin!

Bambi and I watched!

The video is here!
Apparently, they have to keep the water flowing along the ditch to prevent it from seeping under the road and causing damage.
The backhoe driver operated it as if it was a set of tweezers!

I pick up garbage several time a year!

Please slow down, people.
Somebody out there loves you, or your victim.

Earth Day April 22nd - what will you do?

Garbage collected from the ditch
-quite the haul.

Now, to me every day is Earth Day, but for those who aren't inclined, like the drivers who cruise up and down our highway,  chucking stuff out their windows, they need to figure this out.

Dirty ditches
trash blown by the wind

I would like to show you the garbage picked up from the ditch. I was motivated to do this after spotting a Facebook friend's photo of the garbage she picked up. I do this at least twice a year.

We often go for walks and it is disconcerting seeing the garbage in our ditches. I know how much many depend upon tourism for their income, and it looks terrible on a drive through a county.

We took a long drive across southeast Ontario the other day, photographing birds and otters,and I spotted two couples in the ditch picking up trash. I wasn't quick enough to get a photo, but it warmed my heart.

Our precious critters

What is ironic, is that to put out extra bags of garbage costs us, as we have to put a township tag on those bags! On my first foray, I picked 5 beer bottles/cans from the wet ditch, and put them on the road, intending on coming back. They were gone when I returned! I've seen people walking up and down, collected them. I asked one dude why he couldn't pick up ALL the garbage! Silly me.

The garbage is awfully disappointing. Tim Horton's is the worst, with the others following suit.
I see these guys drive by and wonder why.

We are a distance from Wendy's. Enough to eat a supersized meal and dump it out the window. Read more here.

Two supersized orders with fries,
 and he didn't finish either.

Obviously, they were NOT in MY classes. We learned about the impact of the ubiquitous plastic on animals. We collected it, the kids were keen and we did it every year.

Garbage attracts bears. Muskoka cottagers leave garbage out on a Sunday night before heading back to the city for the week, garbage day being on

This little gift on our driveway after a storm

Wednesday. The bears get into it.

We had someone dumping their bag of garbage with ours our first summer here in Lanark. It was bizarre. It's what, $2 for a county sticker. They thousands of dollars in property taxes lakeside, for the privilege of being here.

Impact on wildlife
Birds eat spent balloons.
Turtles are compromised by plastic.
On our lake, fishermen would leave lures to be picked and eaten by anyone and anything.

last year I laid it all out. 

Talk about drinking and driving!

Smokers are the worst! Can't tell you
how many cigarette butts I found, too!

Canoeing I found this. They get stuck on animal's necks
or turtle's bodies.

Surely they could encourage people to return them?
That dang roll-up-the-rim contest...

recycling bin full, one large garbage bag
I have a strategy

With my gr. 7 class, we collected these in Nepean.
We charted and graphed the results!

It was a blur of excitement and activity!
I know how to teach math!

Found...left behind in the lake

To learn more about Earth Day 2013 and The Face of Climate Change, go to www.earthday.org/2013.

to see a garter snake slithering amongst
human trash is a sad commentary

Plastic, garbage, pollution

2210: The Collapse is a National Geographic show. Quite startling as they posit what will happen to, for example, L.A., when they run out of potable water. There are lessons here.

We've been watching a show about the end of the world. I remember teaching Ancient Civilizations to my gr. 5's. It was very interesting. Drought, running out of trees (the Mayas), escalating warfare; there are many reasons for the collapse of these ancient  civilizations.

The Maya cut down the forest to produce plaster to decorate temples. Flash flooding, which meant soil erosion and drastic conditions led to disease and malnutrition. With an expanding population and diminishing resources, fighting began.
Warfare a symptom, not a cause of deprivation, they tell us.

But garbage concerns me. Taking a walk up towards Ian Millar's place, I spotted 16 deer feeding on recently exposed grass. I also spotted much garbage, including beer cans, bottles, plastics, on the side of the road.

Oprah's green episode for Earth Day (2009) started with sad footage and a description of a giant island of trash -- "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch". Horrible what we are doing.


What I found interesting was thinking about what they will conclude about us when archeologists uncover the crap we leave around.

What do our toys say about us?

Giant neighbourhoods, like this one in BBQhaven, with swimming pools holding enough water for a family in an undeveloped country for a year.

Then there are the toys we make out of plastic.

These I came across these plastic toys in a catalogue.

I couldn't stop laughing. I cannot imagine who might be the target audience for this one!

I have hopes that the next generation will make a difference.

Racing Granddads

Racing Grannies

Fighting granddads

I spotted this video on Kay's blog. It interests me, as my kids run their car on cooking oil. A converted Jetta, it also runs on diesel when necessary.
These are things that are possible.