Beyond the Trash in the River: Our Conservation Trash Cleanup Efforts

This much trash was hauled out of the Scioto River in Columbus Ohio in 2 hours time on July 31st.
Photo Cred @JakeVenter.

We host and collaborate on Trash Cleanups, with our friends HERO USA, Scioto Made, Studio 35, and backed by our title sponsor Pacifico Preserves. We primarily do them in Central Ohio and Michigan, but really they could be anywhere that we could partner with some peeps that want to get the job done. To date we have hauled close to 40,000 pounds of trash out of public lands in Central Ohio over the course of several events and a trash cleanup street team.

The “Keep Columbus Clean” theme is what we have centered our vision around. If you want to learn more about it you can do so HERE or just keep on reading!

It’s a fun way to get together in the community with like-minded folks, however it could also be disheartening when you think about all of the trash that we can collect in a small amount of time. To me though it’s beyond the trash in the river, that’s just surface level. Instead of disheartening though I view it as an opportunity.

Here’s what I am getting it. When we first started doing these I sort of thought that it was about awareness for the planet and for the environment. You know a bit of environmental justice if you will :). Pick up some trash, save a fish or a flower, etc.
But the more I have dug into why trash cleanups are important the more that I realize it’s not really even about the trash in the river. It’s about the fact that we can all get together and haul that much garbage, in a short period of time, out of a piece of public land. If we can do that, what else are we able to do?

Sure it’s great that the river is cleaner, even if it saves one bird or one plant’s life it’s worth it to me. But to think that these trash cleanups will get people more aware about trash or littering is missing the point a little bit.
Everyone knows we have landfills and an ocean filled with plastic by now, that hasn’t really gotten the action that some would hope.

That’s because littering and the accumulation of trash in our land has several layers to it…all beyond just trash in the river.

Yelling at people to stop littering is missing the point. Kids litter on accident, teenagers litter because they think it will impress a crush and many marginalized communities (the un housed, those stricken with mental illness, the minimum wage working class) and many more might litter because how could they even consider caring about a planet if they feel that no one on the planet cares for or about them.

I get it. If I didn’t feel valued by anyone and ignored on the street, finding the time to compost my food and recycle the containers of my last meal that I almost didn’t get wouldn’t exactly be on the top of my priority list.

Not to mention private waste haulers dump garbage in low income neighborhoods, suburbs bus the un housed to cities and cities relocate the un housed to wherever they want to go, and lower income neighborhoods statistically have less trash cans, trees, and parks than upper income suburbs.

The point is it’s beyond the trash in the river and it’s beyond scolding people who don’t care about the environment in every move they make in life. Just like global warming and what you can do, it’s more complicated than that. (For instance to solve global warming on a macro level it’s about policy work in government to force companies to reduce their greenhouse emissions and less privileged countries to reduce their work of deforestation, it’s not just about us driving a car to work. On a micro level for global warming, contrary to the popular belief that solar energy and walking everywhere are the best ways, it’s actually to simply stop eating meat. Specifically beef, that’s the number one way you can make an impact micro level wise.
And while we are on the topic of environmental misnomers it would be more beneficial to the environment if you compost your food than to recycle.)

Anyways, like i said, it’s COMPLICATED! It always is, isn’t it?

Some of our lovely volunteers!!!

Have we gotten rid of a lot of trash that would still be rotting and killing plants and animals by doing these trash cleanups? YES.

Will we ever clean all the trash up? NEVER. NOT CLOSE.

Does that fact matter? MAYBE, MAYBE NOT.

Our fearless leader, and co-founder of HERO USA, Mike B giving away the SUP Board from Pacifico Preserves!

Maybe it’s more important to focus on the vision to put People & the Planet OVER Profit instead of just lecturing litter bugs.

Maybe if we can get the un housed housed while treating them with dignity and respect, work on respecting and empowering those battling mental illness with support they could benefit from, choosing to make sure no kid, no adult, and no animal goes hungry and receives clean water in this country, and in this world, then we might start seeing less trash in the river.

Maybe if we can make sure that every child has access to the beautiful gift that Outdoor Adventure & Nature can provide us (HERO USA’s MISSION BTW!) then we might start seeing less trash in the river. Rather than just letting the mountains, forests, and parks be in privileged neighborhoods or over run with predominantly white males.

Maybe if we can see that a small group of citizens can show up on a Saturday afternoon for two hours and haul all of this trash out of a river, then what else can we do together? I think Margaret Mead is nodding her head somewhere in another galaxy :). A group of citizens I might add that come from all different income levels, skin colors, religious (or lack thereof) beliefs, sexual orientations, and more. The people that show up at our events, simply put, do not stereotype each other or put each other in boxes. We love each other.

What else can we change and shift policy wise to allow more access and more love to all people and the planet?
This is an amazing gift and opportunity if you ask me. One that is well beyond collecting a big pile of trash (though once again, that’s fun and important to collect!)

All I think most of us want in life is to be treated with love and respect. To feel like we belong to a community or to a tribe. I think if we can do more of that then we will have less trash in our rivers.

When we value human life, animal life, and our environment over profit and the GDP as a system wide policy in the US, and beyond, then our trash cleanups will no longer be needed.

Because the goal will have been met.

I still fondly remember when co-founder of Hashtag 59 Amy K and I went to lunch with Mike & Dom from HERO USA (at El Arepazo downtown C Bus!) to discuss the idea of partnering on these together for 2018. This was in the winter of 2017. That was a long time ago.

A lot has changed since that lunch. Hell I only live in Columbus a few months a year now and along the way we have gathered a slew of other like-minded folks to join in on the fun. It’s been a wild and dirty ride that I hope doesn’t end anytime soon. We couldn’t do it without all of the people who show up and support the events with their time and energy. We also couldn’t do it without the support of Pacifico Preserves.

I’m grateful that we got this going after that lunch and that our biggest one yet was our most recent one. Hopefully our next one tops this (stay tuned HERE for future dates we have several coming up).

I’ve been privileged enough to be nomadic for several years now. I’m also stoked when I get to return to Central Ohio and help put a few more of these events on. While being a nomad I have also seen and taken part with other groups coming together just as we have in Columbus to make change. To make stuff happen. To take care of people. To take care of the planet.

Jill G walked in to our airbnb in Seattle while I was writing this and showed me a photo of a young adult around the corner who had set up a pop up tent on the curb and was playing music and giving away food to anyone who needed or wanted it.

We take part in beach cleanups in the town of Tamarindo Costa Rica when we live there with The Clean Wave.

LA Compost was started by a guy named Marco and now they are working at urban farms all over LA and employing a large staff.

Meals on Wheels in Colorado let me be their load guy and they had folks who had been volunteering there for two decades. TWO DECADES.

I could go on and on and on with all the grassroots movements of change making citizens in this world, it’s beautiful to take part in and witness and feel the vibrations of their energy.

Nothing will ever change if we wait for someone else to do it. It just might have a bigger reason and implication for why we should keep doing it.

Let’s keep picking up trash, but maybe have our eyes on something bigger and beyond the trash in the river.

If you want to do something like this in your community and want to partner or sponsor it, drop us a note on our contact page or in the comments section!

Thanks for reading friends, and thanks for Keeping Mother Earth and Columbus Clean.

Mike R

Please do join us and stay up to date HERE, we have fun while we get dirty! #KeepColumbusClean