A Trail of Trash

I went for a hike and I was saddened by what I saw. I decided to take pictures of all the trash I came across within a few minutes. People carelessly throw down trash at picnics or parties.

Let me tell you why you CANNOT throw trash on the ground. First of all, it is illegal. That's right, it is against the law. You will have to pay a fine of $100-$1,000!!! You will be ordered by the court to pick up trash for 8 hours.
If you do it again, you will have to pay $500-$1,000 and pick up trash for 16 hours.

Besides, trash is ugly. Look at these pictures. No one wants to see this garbage when they are hiking through a beautiful park. No one wants to see this garbage in their neighborhood, either.

Also, trash does not just magically disappear. Most of the trash found on our streets is made of plastic. PLASTIC DOES NOT GO AWAY!!! It is on this Earth to stay, my friends. When it finally rains, all of the trash on the street gets washed into our streams and into the ocean.

Next, throwing trash on the ground is a horrible thing to do to animals. Why?
Animals find bits of trash on the ground and they try to eat it. They choke and die. Or it goes into animal stomachs and makes them sick and they die. Or pieces of trash can get stuck around animals necks or wings or fins. They cannot move and they die.

So what are some things you can do to clean up your neighborhood and your parks? You can tell your family, friends, and teacher at school what I just told you. Tell all of those people to tell 10 people that they know. The word will spread.

If you have a party outdoors, set up a large container for recyclable things. You can make MONEY from recycling bottles and cans! After the party, make sure you pick up all of the pieces of balloons, balloon strings, bottles, cans, paper plates, and all the trash. When you are about to leave the area, tell everyone to look around and make sure the place is free of trash.

If you go exploring at a park and you have a drink or food with you, hold onto the bottle, can, or bag until you can find a trash can. When you are through walking around, you can throw your trash into a trash can, or recycle it.

If you eat in your car, do not throw your trash out the window! Hold onto it until you get out of the car and then throw it away in a trash can. Would you want animals to come drop some poopie doobles in your kitchen or throw trash in your bedroom? No? I didn't think you would. So keep poisonous, ugly, and dangerous things out of the place where animals live.

Finally, if someone in your family works on cars at your home, make sure they put oil in bottles and take them to a hazardous waste place. Make sure your cars are not leaking transmission, radiator, or brake fluid onto the street or driveway. If they are, they need to be fixed. Ask an adult to fix the car. Wash your cars at a car wash, not on your driveway. Why? Because, when it rains, all of these fluids get washed right into streams, lakes, rivers, and the ocean. What is something that lives in lakes or the ocean that you like to eat? Did you say fish? Then you are correct. If the fish take in all of these nasty fluids, it winds up in their bodies. So when you eat fish and seafood, you eat the nasty stuff that got dumped onto the street. Ooooh, yuck!

So, you can see that you and your family can make the world a better place very easily! Recycle, throw away trash in a trash can, and keep car fluids out of the street. Your children, and grandchildren will thank you. And so will all of the animals!!

Did you find this useful? If so, you can send a "tip" to my PAYPAL.COM account. My email address is kathomatho@yahoo.com. I will donate 10% of your tip to The Orange County Zoo.