Fourche Creek, Earth Day clean up (April 19, 2014)

[Tim Eubanks]

Earthday_cleanup.pdf

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FYI!

[randominsects]

As a added bonus when starbucks sponsors a volunteer event they match volunteer hours with a monetary donation to the non-profit organizing the event. When I worked for starbucks a few years back I think the match was $10 an hour and it looks like that would be going to Audubon Arkansas. So if you go make sure you sign in so they will know how many volunteers where there. Also they will probably have a bunch of coffee.

I'm planning on going in my creek boat since its the biggest boat I have. If anyone else is coming and has a spare canoe they can bring let me know.

[Deuce]

Zach or anyone else interested, I'll be on the Buffy this weekend, but I have a flatback canoe (seventeen footer as I recall) you're welcome to use. It's as much of a pig as you might think but would probably work well for this job. I'll throw in a TM and battery too if desired. Only caveat is you have to come get it.

[Robert Walker]

I think this is an approach from the ground opportunity to clean up. So a canoe is not needed. But I do have one that can be used.

[Cowper]

Robert is correct - this weekend they are attacking one particularly bad trash pile-up that can normally be accessed by walking about 350 feet from the end of Scott Hamilton Drive. I say "normally" because the creek rose about 10 feet last Sunday. It is already down to within 3 feet of that lower level, and will be to within 2 feet of its more normal levels by Saturday. This pile is so bad it was featured on a recent weekend news program in Little Rock.

From a practical standpoint, this means walk-in folks should bring waders or muck boots if they own those things, or be prepared to wade in very muddy conditions.

A boat would be helpful for paddling to some of the trash you can't reach from shore. You'll be within a few feet of the shore-based workers, and could easily fill one bag at a time and toss it to someone else up on the bank to go after more. Since most of the workers will be shore-based, I think having one or two boats in the mix would be helpful, although you'll be able to help a great deal either with or without a boat.

You can see this trash pile on Google Earth at N34.70195 W92.31846 if you zoom in.

If you do make it out to help, as you clean, I encourage you to make a mental note of the things you are picking up and keep this question in mind: How much less trash would you see there if Arkansas had a container deposit law similar to 10 other states (and several countries)?

[randominsects]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll just throw my play boat and waders in the car in case they are needed.
Zach

[Cowper]

Here's the news story about what that pile looked like two or three weeks ago. In a related story, they said 85 bags of trash were already removed in April; I don't know what their total count is so far.

http://www.fox16.com/story/d/story/susa ... XU0HuU2H9w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And below is a photo I took in April. I know they've already moved the power boat downstream a few hundred feet, in preparation for hauling that out. They've done some hard work, but there are still thousands of smaller items in this pile alone.

In my world of "trash collecting for sport", this is sort of like shooting fish in a barrel, or fishing at the stocked kiddie pond where you know you're going to catch your limit. But it is still a good exercise to help everyone get together for a good purpose and to better understand the scope of the problem.

[Cowper]

Zack had the best find of the day: moccasin in a cup! At least he let debo play with it, so she was happy too. (And we got a lot of trash, too.)

[Cowper]

Those with Facebook access can see a photo album here: https://www.facebook.com/cowper.chadbou ... tif_t=like" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jaxjack]

you all done good!
sorry i missed out again.
i looked for you south of the expressway because thats what i think of for scott hamilton. i found the place today after checking the web site.

imo, trying to get a bottle law is a good way to stay frustrated.
better, i think trying to squeeze $ from state parks, game and fish, pulaski county little rock, and adeq for road way and creek cleanups and adopt a street efforts.

giving economic value to plastic bottles and tires would help solve the problem. just look at the low number of alumunum cans picked up.
but the "false" value is always intrepeted as a TAX !
jack danielson

[Cowper]

Jack, I don't disagree that some frustration lies ahead, but no litter clean up program is ever going to come close to the level of success being enjoyed in litter reduction and % of bottles recycled instead of landfilled that is enjoyed in every state and every country that has gone the deposit law route. Drive any highway; how many miles have been adopted? A few here and there, while hundreds of others remain "orphans". Coke estimates that 37% of bottles are currently recycled, and has a "goal" to get to 50% by 2015. They won't meet that because current trends show the number of bottles sold is going up faster than the rate of recycling. Meanwhile in every state with a bottle bill they're hitting better than 70%, most are better than 80%, and Michigan with a 10 cent return instead of the usual nickel hits 97%.

To those who call it a tax, it is the only tax I know of where you can get most of your money back (by just returning the bottles for the deposit). And the non-refundable part amounts to about 2 cents per container, and compares very favorably to the alternative costs for disposal.

When you start looking at the numbers for "bottle deposits" and their success rates, vs. how we're doing with litter pickup drives and recycling promotional campaigns, the numbers are simply staggering. For example, using the volume of the dumpster, I calculated that this KLRB Earth Day effort netted about 30,000 containers. Sounds good, until you do some more math and figure out that in the Little Rock metro area, the number of containers sold per day is probably close to 1 million. That's per day. If even 1% of that ends up as litter, then one of the biggest events of the year, on Earth Day, just scratched the surface of the problem. My take is that even if it is frustrating, we've got to not spend ALL of our energy on picking up after others, and save some of it for working on a more global solution. And yes, it will take hard work because big dollars are aligned to fight against any real change to the status quo. That doesn't mean the fight isn't worth fighting. Because even though they successfully fought against new laws, with only two new states passing laws since 1987, polls show that about 3 out of 4 people believe bottle bills are a good idea, and numerous studies back this up by showing that the current "no return" system is simply a means of shifting the burden in a manner that makes the initial cost of the beverage cheaper, while handing the cost back to the consumer at the tail end for picking up, disposal, landfill costs, and so on. As a consumer, I'm going to be paying for it either way, I'd rather pay for it at the front end by a system that minimizes the litter problem while simultaneously taking the rate of recycled containers to heights that educational programs about recycling can only dream of achieving.

[jaxjack]

coop, you presented all the pro arguments i tried with every state and local legislator ive known in my 20 plus years in arkansas. answer is that there must be a huge grass roots push. i have yet to witness one.

having lived in bottle law states, i can attest that total litter goes down since folks dont throw as much out the window if they dont throw out the containers. there is a dramatic change when you cross the state lines.

i even tried to have labeled containers made prima facia evidence that the fast food companies should be held responsible. the timber companies got it into law that a piece of paper with your name on it evidence when there was a big push to clean up illegal dumps on timber co property and make companys responsible.

i agree with you, and will help, but i think short term it would be more effective to pursue pots of money already there.