Earth Day – You Can Make a Difference!

Earth Day – You Can Make a Difference!

Hi friends, it’s Earth Day 2026.

You know I’m a big believer in repurposing, recycling and reusing and saving the planet one pallet at a time.  But sometimes we have to stop, take a look around, and see if we can make a difference in some small way for the greater good.

In the picture above you will see my dad with a bag of trash he picked up along a trail in his left hand and my  youngest son’s hand in his right.  He was a firm believer in always leaving a place better off than you found it.   Sadly, he passed away in 2008 from cancer. Maybe it was only his corner of the world, but he definitely left the world in a better place than when he found it.

My own trash picking started as just picking up one piece of trash every time I took a walk, which was just about daily.  I would have my phone in one hand listening to something on Youtube but I would still have a free hand.  Why not pick up just one piece of garbage?

I soon found that I could easily hold more than one item of trash, maybe even 2 or three in that one free hand.  And if I found a trashcan along the way, I could dispose of my trash and once again I had a free hand. That trash quickly added up.

My garbage picking didn’t seem like much, but just for fun, starting last July, I decided to track my trash.  Every time I took a walk, I would continue to gather any trash I found until I had a handful, then I would take a picture and hopefully find a nearby trashcan.

Some walks I had multiple handfuls of trash and sometimes I was barely able to fill one fist.

I continued to pick up trash thru to the late fall.  Even managing to find a few practice golf balls for hubs.  I had to end my daily outdoor walks  when the weather got brutally cold.

I really am a fair weather walker.

But I continued to pick up what I could when I could.

I thought I would find a lot of soda cans, but what I found almost daily were water bottles.  There were also a nice collection of beer cans tossed from a passing car on a weekend night.

With all this trash, you would think that I live in a very filthy neighborhood…I don’t.  I think it’s rather clean.

I find the messiest days are trash days when the wind will pick up the trash and deposit it  wherever.  Or a few scraps escape the trash can as it’s being dumped into the garbage truck.

Not all trash is intentional, but it all has to be picked up by someone.

I was saving all my pics for this one  lovely Earth day to show you that one person can really make a difference.  I’ll continue to pick up trash on my daily walks but it will be nice not to have to take a picture before I find a trash can to deposit it in.

So on this Earth Day, go out and pick up just one thing on your walk.  It really can make a difference and maybe, just maybe, it will become a habit.

Until next time, stay inspired.

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