ugh.

Earlier on this beautiful Saturday morning, while sipping my tea and popularizing whoopie pies, I glanced out the window at the adjacent wooded area and saw something horrifying. A bright yellow, plastic peanut MnM bag that was - without a doubt - in my recycling bin earlier this week. That's right, plastic as in the "throwing a party" sized bags. I buy them in bulk and keep them in a giant jar because that is how many I consume. Admitting the problem is the first step.

Anywho, there it was at the base of a tree, smothering the seedlings that are only strong enough to push their way through the fallen leaves, and it hurt my heart. As you could guess, I got my bum out there with a trash bag and decided to do a little spring cleaning. Don't get me wrong, I pick up windblown or carelessly tossed garbage on a regular basis, but today I just felt the urge to take those efforts to another level and thought I'd report on what and how much I found.

18 plastic bags (from grocery to fruit/veggie to shopping to Ziploc)
2 boxes from cases of beer
A 40 ounce Heineken bottle that I intend to reuse as a vase (sans the label of course)
A huge plasticy-cloth-type zip up bag that must have held a blanket for an elephant
3 condom wrappers (no condoms - thankfully)
4 damp, unread, poorly-delivered newspapers
A broken, plastic Slurpee cup
2 bottled waters (one of which was half full, or half empty depending on how you look at it)
2 disposable coffee cups
2 pizza boxes
An offer to refinance
3 turtle doves (kidding)
A few 'yard sale' and 'futon for sale' fliers
At least five take-out menus
3 crushed beer cans (no where near or related to aforementioned beer boxes)
A pile of duct tape and plastic that made me want to call the cops
And the ever-so-hard-to-swallow: peanut MnM bag

I couldn't have covered more than half an acre and my trash bag was full. I'm not sure where I'm headed with this... I guess I'm just saying... I've never seen a 40 ounce beer bottle being carried by the wind.