Something to help the community
 

Today on my commute home I took a slightly different route than usual. As I rode by, I saw that on the side of the road there was mess of some litter. I thought: "hmm, that needs to be cleaned up" - and then it hit me. If I had had a large (13gallon or so) trash bag in my saddlebag, I could have easily stopped for 2 min and collected it up the bag, tied it, and left the bag for someone in a car to pickup - much less of an eyesore, cleaner road, and advocacy for the goodwill of cyclists in general. If we want people in the community to care about us, we should make sure we care about them.

So, from now on, I will store a 13 gallon trash bag in my saddlebag for such opportunities to be a community servant.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=332362=http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=332363
Ready for pickup.

I doubt that anyone would pick up a random full trash bag on the side of the road. If for no other reason, then concern over what might be in it. So bagging the trash and leaving it behind is just adding a plastic trash bag to the area.

lol you think someone driving in a car is going to stop and help?

They don't even have time to stop to avoid things in the road most of the time..

I like the idea, but there's no guarantee in my area that the trash bag would get picked up by a trash hauler.

If you had used an orange bag, then the inmate crew might have picked it up when they next come through.

Nice thought and follow through. Locally, a number of my neighbors and I routinely collect trash from the public spaces. Unfortunately, the bums dump it faster than we can collect it. I kind of understand why the drug-addled homeless folks do it, but I am somewhat mystified by the people who drive to the park/playground/riverfront, picnic, and then leave their rubbish behind. There was room in their cars to bring it, but not to take it home.

This is an especially good idea at large public events and airports!

I could see this backfiring. Someone comes along just as you finish filling the bag and sees you tossing a bag of trash by the side of the road. Calls the police with a description of the 'no-good' cyclist who just dumped a bag of trash in the yard.

"I cannot tell a lie. I put that envelop under that garbage."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57gzA2JCcM

You could start a movement! Call it the 'Bicycle Riders' Bag-in-the-Pannier, By the Roadside Droppin', Anti-Litter and -Massacree Movement.'

Seriously, OP, good on you. My late father used to do this on the road his property abutted, and I imagine he cut an eccentric figure to passers-by, an elderly gent with old clothes and a garbage bag, walking the banks by the side of a now-busy road, stooping to pick things up. Much of it he even recycled! He felt that he was just doing his part of a necessary job. If everyone did just a bit of that, the world would be a better place. Thanks for the reminder.

Great Idea.

In our area we have an annual clean up day. Then different groups have "adopted" sections of the highway as their project to keep clean. Signs tell everyone which group it is. If, a person were to call the group responsible for that section it would be picked up.

I always bring an empty bag with me when I am hiking but I can't imagine that I could even begin to make a dent in all the litter on the roads in my area.

I would spend all my time stopping to pick up litter and it would take me an hour to get more than a couple of miles. I'd never get anywhere.

Someone's giving K'tesh a run for his money!

It's a great idea. Garbage that doesn't get picked up quickly tends to spread.

You might pack some work gloves also.

Talk to the local garbage company to see if they would pick up the bags. Around here we have adopt-a-highway program, and it is a variation on what you describe, with specially marked bags.

Along a couple of popular roads for cycling on the edge of town here (McKenzie View and Fox Hollow), there are a couple of residents who walk the roads picking up the garbage that has been thrown out of cars. There is a definite pattern to the garbage. On the outbound side of the roadway, one will find lots of alcoholic beverage containers and fast-food wrappings. I guess the folks who live in the suburbs can't wait until they get home to get drunk and quench their munchies. Inbound there are bags of household garbage, which is just weird to me. There are also beer cans that are hung in roadside trees, likely by the children of the folks who live in town on their way back home after drinking in the "country" (suburbs).