11/27/20: Neighborhood Cleanup (Colleen)

Name: Colleen 

Date of Cleanup: November 27th, 2020

Location: My Neighborhood

Normal Uses: 

• Residential area

Total Trash Weight (lbs): 54 pounds

Time Spent: 1.5 hours

Expected Trash Type:

• Food waste

• One-use plastics 

Found Trash Types (unexpected):

• Shoes

• Wheels to a wagon

Where the Litter may be Coming From: 

• Vehicles throwing trash out their windows

• Garbage truck blow-aways

Interesting things I noticed:

• The closer we got to the road, the dirtier it was. 

• Despite only covering a short distance, there were over 50 pounds of trash. That is concerning in comparison to other parks, where the entirety of the park’s trash weighed 20-30 pounds. 

11/7/20: Singley Park Clean-up

Date: November 7th, 2020

Location: Singley Park; 425 Woodfern Road, Hillsborough, NJ 08844

Parks Normal Uses: 

• Sports

• Softball

• Soccer

Total Trash Weight (lbs): 30 pounds

Time Spent: 2.5 hours

Expected Trash Type:

• Sports garbage

• Plastic bottles

• bar wrappers

• Masks 

Found Trash Types (unexpected):

• Metal bench in the woods

• Sandbags (many of them)

• Diapers

• Golf balls (one was destroyed)

Where the Litter may be Coming From: 

• The metal bench could have been deemed unused, so it was put into the woods for some reason instead of being taken care of properly.

• Sandbags are used to hold down the soccer nets, but they were in the woods, so -- like the bench -- it was thrown into the woods.  

• The diaper was under a tree, so I guess someone did not feel the need to dispose of it. 

Ideas for Future Cleanups:

• Take drinkable water/food in the cart if longer than an hour because some wanted water very often.

Additional Photos 

10/10/20: Docherty Park Clean-up

Date: October 10th, 2020

Location: Harold Docherty Memorial Park, 154 Route 206 South; Hillsborough, NJ

Parks Normal Uses: 

• Softball

• Soccer

• Field hockey 

• Roller rink could be a hangout-out spot where people drink alcohol, etc. 

• Using a park for alcohol consumption should not be normalized; it is illegal.

• Playground
• Picnic Area/Shelter

Total Trash Weight (lbs): 28 pounds 

Time Spent: 2.5 hours

Expected Trash Type:

• food wrappers

• water bottles

Found Trash Types (unexpected):

• alcohol/vapes

• a dozen softballs 

• a tarp

Where the Litter may be Coming From: 

• softball/soccer practices

• the loading area on the opposite side of the fence

• group(s) that meet at the park to smoke/drink

Ideas for Future Cleanups:

• Wagon to pull trash

• Wear different shoes (durable ones)

• Bag(s) for plastics/recyclables and bag(s) for trash

Thoughts:

• It was the first clean up, so we did not know what to expect. 

• Not very difficult; we just walked the perimeter. 

• The skating rink was the dirtiest aspect of the park: the second being the parking lots.

Additional Photos: