Monday, October 19, 2009

2009 trash picking season is over - Adopt-a-Highway


October has been a bad month to pick up trash . On the 3rd it rained, on the 10th it snowed, and on the 17th ice was over everything.

Trash picking activities will resume in April 2010.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Snow today - trash picking postponed until October 17th

Yesterday there was frost on the pumpkin and today there is snow on the ground. Picking is postponed for another week. Let's meet on Saturday, October 17th.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

It's Adopt-A-Highway, not Adopt-A-River

We were picking trash on Hwy 371 in Crow Wing County Minnesota. I looked over the highway bridge and saw that a dock section had washed downstream on the Nokasippi and was caught up. Shoot, you don't see that everyday.

October 10, 2009 Adopt-A-Highway Minnesota

The rain on Saturday kept some volunteers at home and that is to be expected. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, October 10th.

The Cass County site, Hwy 64 (mm 24-26) was picked on Monday of this week. About 95% of the trash in this rural site was jetsam. My impression is that in the metro, the trash mix is about fifty-fifty between flotsam and jetsam.

There is currently no Adopt-A-Highway program in Crow Wing County. I will begin a campaign for the county to adopt such a program and secured the name of one of the county commissioners and I will start there. Cass County has an Adopt-A-Highway program and so should Crow Wing County.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Adopt-A-Highway Minnesota October 3, 2009 rainy day



It's dark and rainy at 7:25 AM. If the rain continues we will have to re-schedule. We can pick it up again next Saturday, October 10th. Come to the 'Bou at Bren Rd and 169 anyway and we can visit. How 'bout those Twins? And how 'bout them Vikes? And how 'bout that Bret Fave?

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Litter facts from Minnesota DOT

Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up litter on more than 12,000 miles of Minnesota roadways.
Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up approximately 26,000 tons of litter every year.
During a one-time sweep of Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Adopt-a-Highway volunteers picked up 192 tons of trash in one day. The quantity filled 16 Mn/DOT tandem trucks and represented approximately 6,000 filled trash bags.
Researchers calculate that 55% of all littering is done intentionally by people who drop or discard products.
45% of roadside litter occurs unintentionally when trash blows out of uncovered trucks or falls off of unsecured loads.
Experts estimate that approximately 80% of all littering is done by males.
Food and beverage packaging constitutes 51% of roadside litter.
A conviction for littering is a misdemeanor that is entered on the offender's driving record. A second offense requires a minimum fine of $400 and a maximum of $700. A judge may require the offender to pick up litter along public roads or impose a jail sentence. (MN statutes 169.42 subd. 5)
Mn/DOT can bill an individual for retrieving and disposing of illegally dumped items like tires, appliances, furniture and hazardous waste.
Adopt-a-Highway volunteers save Mn/DOT $6.9 million every year.
Tipping fees imposed by landfills cost Mn/DOT approximately $250,000 every year.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Adopt-A-Highway - Minnesota

Today a group of five of us picked trash in Crow Wing County. [The group is Bethany Lutheran College Friends]. I had some cancellations and so we were down to one car instead of two. We picked around Fort Ripley where the Nokasippi runs into the Mississippi. A reporter from The Brainerd Daily Dispatch is doing a feature story on senior citizens who do volunteer work. Our group of volunteers has been selected. We spoke with the reporter at the Baxter Caribou before we went out to the site. A photographer followed an hour later and snapped some pix of the group in action.

As I crossed the Nokasippi I looked over the side and saw a big section of someone's dock hung up below. I snapped a picture and will put it in the blog when I came back home.

The trash picking season ends for me on or about October 17th. For three consecutive Saturdays pickers will be working the Hwy 169-62 area in Edina, Hopkins, and Eden Prairie.