Trash Wars

Today, Alex, Imari, Whitney, and I donned disposable gloves, armed ourselves with big trash bags, and headed north on Exchange to battle litter. By the end of the block on which the Chicago Family Health Center is located, my bag was already sagging with the weight of various plastic bottles, ripped wrappers, an empty bottle of Grey Goose, plastic grocery bags, discarded flyers, and postage stamp sized bags that Alex optimistically suggested may have once contained jewelry. I was not really surprised by the amount of litter we encountered because we have walked many time around these blocks and seen the neglected sidewalks in the neighborhood. I was surprised, however, by the rate at which my bag filled. The trash bag, which had seemed cavernous and unlikely to be the limiting factor for the length of our service project, was ripping from the weight of its contents as we turned left on 90th street. I was lagging behind at this point which was a good thing. I was content to pick up stray wrappers (someone in the neighborhood consumes a terrifying quantity of blue raspberry taffy) and leave the larger items for Imari, Whitney, and Alex to fill their bags as quickly as possible.

As we made our way back to the clinic (having walked around one square block), we had four nearly full bags of trash, one for each street we had walked down. It made me wonder how many bags it would take to clean up the entire neighborhood. Any guesses? I'm going to count how many blocks are in South Chicago at some point soon!

During our service project, I was struck by three things. First, most of the trash we were picking up was food wrappers. We were seeing another effect of fast food culture in our community; fast food leaves behind a trail of paper and foil while fresh foods can biodegrade. Second, one of the students made the perceptive observation that the litter could have been avoided if there had been public trash cans available. Usually, I think that litter is a product of laziness and apathy, but in this case, I think she was right! There were no trash cans on these blocks, so there was no other place to put trash. Lastly, a lot of the trash we saw was actually inside people's front and back yards. Even if they weren't responsible for the trash in the first place, they had let all of it pile up. I think that is indicative of the pride people have in their community. If someone doesn't care enough about their yard to keep it looking nice, then it gives silent permission for other people to treat green spaces like big, grassy dumpsters.