Do Litterbugs Believe in Trash Fairies?

The photo is from today. The location is the westmost part of Thornton in Newark. The guy is Jim. Jim has a beat. It stretches along Thornton Avenue from the Decoto overpass to the beginning of businesses at Hickory Street. A mile or so, of busy road, that Jim walks up and down carrying a bucket. The National Wildlife Refuge area is on both sides, with egrets, clapper rails, salt marsh harvest mice and other wildlife enjoing their protected status. Cars and trucks swish by. And then there is Jim in his straw hat.

You must have seen Jim at some point over the years. And what is it he does out there? For the last 7 years Jim has taken it upon himself to regulary spend 3 to 4 hours, picking up the trash that other people toss out their car windows or leave somewhere, to be blown about, to end up on roadsides, in waterways or brush.

Jim has lived in Newark 30+ years and regularly commuted this stretch of road to work. When he retired one of his new undertakings was to come out here, walk along with his bucket, picking up trash. When there is too much to carry, he brings it to his car, then he moves on. When the pieces of trash are too cumbersome for Jim to handle, he asks the City to pick it up. 

Litter begets litter, like graffiti invites more graffiti, so the value of getting rid of some of it is exponential. There are 'clean up days' in some parks inviting residents to come out and help occasionally, but few people make it into a regular chore for themselves, but Jim says there are others out there, like him, cleaning up.

Today, I told Jim that, as a Newark resident, I really appreciate his efforts. I'm not a litterbug, and I might even try to become a litter fairy, someone who picks up up what some of our fellow humans can't manage to place in a better place than out their car window.