Clean Up
Hi, my name is Nicholas Ryan Groth. I have a few ideas to help out the community in Wisconsin. Last year, I took an Urban Studies class, and the teacher played a video about a run-down neighborhood with junk piled high everywhere. The entire neighborhood came together to start cleaning and clearing out the waste. On my route to the elementary school where I do my fieldwork, I have noticed countless numbers of "trashed" areas in the west side of Milwaukee. My plan is to spend a long day or two or three to clear all the junk out of some of these areas and make them useful again. There would be some awesome parks and green spaces for people to play on if I did this work.
Also, in my county (Racine, WI), our government does not put a lot of money into cutting the grass along the roads. The grass in the medians grows wild, and it is embarrassing when people from out of town (i.e. for car shows) visit. Thus, I plan to be active in cutting the grass every once in a while this spring and summer in order to save our city's beauty while also being able to get a good work out and tan.
Last, I will be proactive in buying only products that can be recycled. I will keep track of everything I buy from today until Sunday May 2 and keep accurate records on how much I have recycled. It's a waste to buy products that just get thrown away in the garbage. Of course, after May 2, I will continue the same pattern and also encourage others to do the same.
Hopefully, other people can help me in these tasks. I do not plan on getting the word out by doing anything fancy (i.e. passing out flyers, which would only lead to more waste). Basically, it would be best to just go about my plans solo at first, and then hopefully others will see me and want to help out.
I plan to take before and after pictures of the areas I work on to share with everyone.
Let me know what you think. My email is nrgroth@uwm.edu
Thanks.
Hi Nicholas,
Hi Nicholas,
It sounds like some neighborhood clean up efforts are well needed. Are there things you can do to prevent the problem from happening again? There is a lot of research about preventing litter in the first place. This litter prevention web page from Keep America Beautiful includes useful information you can apply to your project. Your connection with nearby schools may help you make a change that can last. You can get some supplies for a clean up from Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful. KGMB could also tell you if any neighborhood groups are planning clean ups in the area you identified; maybe you can join forces with others.
I wonder how the problem with grass in the medians can be reduced at the source? How could the idea of the Waste Hierarchy be applied to this problem? You may want to contact the officials in charge (is it a city street or county road?) and find out what has proposed to address this problem and how you can help. Maybe there are ways to landscape the medians that look beautiful, require less maintenance and also resist dry spells and pests without watering or pesticides. And you could still work on your tan
I like your idea of keeping records to help you find ways to recycle as much as you can while encouraging others to do the same. www.recyclemorewisconsin.org is a helpful place to start.
To keep things manageable, you might want to focus on just one of these topics (or maybe two). Good idea about taking before and after photos.
Keep posting updates! - Chris Beimborn, Waste Less Wisconsin Mentor
Progress
I am wondering where my other posts show up?
I have posted a couple updates, the latest being yesterday, but I cannot find them on the website.
Either way, I'll give you a short summary of what my other posts covered (in case they're lost in space), and the updates I have for you today.
First, I decided to not cut the grass in the medians.
My parents stated that the government would not take lightly to my "helpful" attitude.
They pay people to cut the grass, so I'd basically be taking away jobs.
Since you suggested focusing on less projects, I decided to cut this one out.
I recorded and kept everything I bought for 3 weeks...making sure they were all recyclables.
A few products had things included that needed to be thrown away unfortunately.
My Excel sheet covers the dates from Wed Apr 14 to Wed May 5.
I posted yesterday my intentions to go out, find a site that needed a good cleanup, and to actually clean the place up.
I found a small forested area/park near the Root River in Racine, WI where garbage was everywhere.
I took some before and after pictures, but not until I had part of the place already picked up (my mom dropped off a camera for me while working).
There were some pretty disgusting things on the ground, but the place looks beautiful now.
I hope it can remain that way.
Also, I mentioned in a previous post my intentions to include a log chart for how much I drove for one week.
In this, I would be able to see how much gas I use on average per week, and then I could find ways to decrease the amount I drive.
I have an Excel sheet for this, too.
For the recyclables and drive sheet, with the Excel sheets, I will be writing a summary of the data paper, plus a paper stating what I have learned.
Thanks.
PS - Let me know if you received me earlier posts.