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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Uptown Oakland trash pick on April 29
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Friday, April 13, 2012
"C'mon, let's go!": Overcoming picker's anxiety at Geary & 25th
A few days ago I was transferring from the 38L to the 29 in San Francisco's Richmond district, heading to visit a few dear friends who were leaving the country later that day, starting a new life again in their home country of Japan. The clouds had broken above, after several days of rain, but still a very sad day. As I crossed the street to wait at the bus stop, I checked my bus schedule. 5 minutes until the bus would arrive. And this is what I saw:
Yup, your eyes aren't lying. There's a plastic big-gulp cup, a bunch of papers, a to-go container with some noodles spilled out over the concrete, and why not, parts of an orange smashed onto the sidewalk. It looks like someone(s) almost made it to the trash can, but decided to dump things right next to it. Or was it a windy night the night before they emptied the can, and there was overflow spilling onto the sidewalk. Or someone, or your local raccoon, foraging through the can in the early morning hours. A mess no matter how you look at it.
I was thinking about the time, and looking at my watch. I wanted to pick this up, such a mess! But I hadn't brought my pikstik. Then I thought--wait a minute, I have some plastic bags in my backpack. I'll just use one as a glove, and pick up the pieces of trash one by one, and drop them into the can. Kind of like dog owners do with the dog's...well, you know.
Then I started to hesitate. There were 7 or 8 people sitting at the bus stop already, waiting there with me. People dressed nicely, even fashionably, with sunglasses on, looking at their smartphones or disinterestedly off into the distance. Was I ready to start handling those noodles? No matter that I would be using a plastic bag; it still seemed like I'd be touching that trash with my hands, and suddenly I felt the stigma of being a trash guy, a trashy guy. I had the bag in my hand, but I thought about it more, buying a little time by looking down the street again. Was the bus coming yet?
And then, the most beautiful of things! An older man, maybe close to 70, and much shorter than me, had jumped right in, taken up the task, with no hesitation whatsoever! He was crouching down, reaching and grabbing at the trash with a pink bag (mine was white), dropping the junk into the can. Then he saw that I was looking at him, bag in my hand, and motioned at me: "C'mon! Let's go!" he said.
And so I did. I reached down next to him and grabbed some noodles, and then that piece of orange that you see in the picture above. Cleaning it up only took a few seconds (sorry, we didn't have the tools to take care of all that moisture underneath) and before I knew it, the man had produced a bottle of water from his bag, and was pouring it over both of his hands, washing them. He offered it to me, and though I wondered if our hands even needed washing (they were protected the whole time--was it a symbolic cleaning ritual?) I accepted gladly and he poured the water over my hands too.
We had had just enough time to shake off the water and grab our bags, smiling at this moment of unplanned partnership, before the bus came and everyone else got in line. I got on first and sat in the middle of the bus. He stopped at the door to talk to the driver, and sat down in front. And just like that, we never got to speak to each other again, but I smiled again at this picking experience. Why worry, I thought, about how it looks to be picking up trash alone. There might just be another picker right there with you.
Yup, your eyes aren't lying. There's a plastic big-gulp cup, a bunch of papers, a to-go container with some noodles spilled out over the concrete, and why not, parts of an orange smashed onto the sidewalk. It looks like someone(s) almost made it to the trash can, but decided to dump things right next to it. Or was it a windy night the night before they emptied the can, and there was overflow spilling onto the sidewalk. Or someone, or your local raccoon, foraging through the can in the early morning hours. A mess no matter how you look at it.
I was thinking about the time, and looking at my watch. I wanted to pick this up, such a mess! But I hadn't brought my pikstik. Then I thought--wait a minute, I have some plastic bags in my backpack. I'll just use one as a glove, and pick up the pieces of trash one by one, and drop them into the can. Kind of like dog owners do with the dog's...well, you know.
Then I started to hesitate. There were 7 or 8 people sitting at the bus stop already, waiting there with me. People dressed nicely, even fashionably, with sunglasses on, looking at their smartphones or disinterestedly off into the distance. Was I ready to start handling those noodles? No matter that I would be using a plastic bag; it still seemed like I'd be touching that trash with my hands, and suddenly I felt the stigma of being a trash guy, a trashy guy. I had the bag in my hand, but I thought about it more, buying a little time by looking down the street again. Was the bus coming yet?
And so I did. I reached down next to him and grabbed some noodles, and then that piece of orange that you see in the picture above. Cleaning it up only took a few seconds (sorry, we didn't have the tools to take care of all that moisture underneath) and before I knew it, the man had produced a bottle of water from his bag, and was pouring it over both of his hands, washing them. He offered it to me, and though I wondered if our hands even needed washing (they were protected the whole time--was it a symbolic cleaning ritual?) I accepted gladly and he poured the water over my hands too.
We had had just enough time to shake off the water and grab our bags, smiling at this moment of unplanned partnership, before the bus came and everyone else got in line. I got on first and sat in the middle of the bus. He stopped at the door to talk to the driver, and sat down in front. And just like that, we never got to speak to each other again, but I smiled again at this picking experience. Why worry, I thought, about how it looks to be picking up trash alone. There might just be another picker right there with you.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Berkeley (cigarette) butt pick event 1/29!
Hello fellow trash pickers and clean street lovers! Join us tomorrow for a trash pick event starting off at the corner of Telegraph and Bancroft Avenues right at the entrance to UC Berkeley. We'll try to take care of the damage from some of last night's parties and shake a few hands, exchange a few smiles along the way. Check out this cool flyer from Yamato, and cast your vote below for what you think will be the most common item found on the pick!
What will be the most common item found on the Jan. 29 Berkeley trash pick-up?
What will be the most common item found on the Jan. 29 Berkeley trash pick-up?
- pink and green plastic spoons from yogurt shops
- Starbucks cup lids
- dirty diapers
- yesterday's Daily Cal newspaper
- red plastic cups
- wet kleenex & other assorted tissue-like substances
- mostly empty plastic take-out food containers
- talkin' trash with ray & dave 1/29 butt pick event flyers strewn all over the place
- cigarette butts--duh
- [YOUR WRITE-IN CANDIDATE] _______________________
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
China Basin trash pick-up Jan. 7
Here at talkin' trash headquarters, we hope everyone's had a super start to the new year. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts last year, there has been a fair amount of trash on the streets in the first 4 days of 2012. And the steam-cleaning Department of Public Works in San Francisco is probably not going to get it all cleaned up in preparation for this year's Chinese New Year parade. So it looks like we have work to do again this year.
This Saturday, January 7, from 10-12, we were planning to join the Sea Scavenger Conservancy for their once-a-month industrial shoreline cleanup, where they get a bunch of volunteers together just south of AT&T park in San Francisco to "help stop shoreline plastic from becoming ocean plastic".
But, guess what? Found out that's happening January 14th--and all of their pick-ups will be on the SECOND Saturday of each month. We'll try again next week.
SO, in the meantime, we'll plan to work the streets around the Caltrain station, AT&T park, and China Basin, and hopefully pick up some of the plastic that might make its way into the bay anyway. Come join us everyone!
What: Walkin' talkin' neighborhood trash pick-up & podcast
Who: Anyone & everyone
When: 10 am - 12 noon, Saturday Dec. 7
Where: In front of the Caltrain Station, 4th St. btwn King & Townsend
Bring: A friend. Walkin' shoes. Gloves. A trash picker if you've got one
Want more info? Email Ray & Dave at pickitupsf AT gmail dot com
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Friday, December 23, 2011
Vol. 2 Ep. 6: Pickin' in Jack's shadow
You can download the podcast here, and let us know what you think--leave a comment, say hi at "rayanddave AT gmail DOT com", tell us about trash picking, recycling, and cleaning events in your neighborhood, and join us at our next pick. Logos are being thought up, aprons are being designed, websites are under construction, appeals for supplies are being made to city agencies, and we need your help! Thanks everyone!!
XOXO
ray & dave
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
a christmas "lidtree" @ philz
We've had a lot of East Bay activity the last two weeks, highlighted by our pick from downtown Oakland to Jack London Square two days ago. Ray & Dave are hard at work massaging the podcast, which should be ready for release in a few days. And we've had many discoveries of other like-minded pickers and recyclers both near and far, from the folks at Zerotrash.org up and down the state we found when setting up our new twitter account @pickitupSF, to the East Bay Express's cover story "Trashed" about the work of Hank Chapot and the surprising garbage situation at UC Berkeley, to stories about Berkeley recyclers and trash artists Arthur Boone and Mark Olivier, to local artist Jessica who I (dave) bumped into last week at Philz Coffee in Berkeley.
And speaking of Philz, amidst all that there's been a little story growing up in the hallway of that popular coffee spot in north Berkeley, where I like most of the other customers have been tossing my paper coffee cup and plastic lid into the separate recycling and trash containers they have set out there. "Cup separate from lid" because, while the paper cups are deemed recyclable materials by the City of Berkeley, the lids are not. I've been going there for weeks, almost every day in the haze of revising, editing, and formatting my dissertation throwing away cup after lid after cup after lid after cup after...
This got me thinking, because on our recent pick in the Mission district in San Francisco i had re-encountered a bunch of my old nemesis from picks past--the infamous plastic coffee lid, most commonly in white, sometimes in black, and there must be other colors too. While there are some people who apparently sing the accolades of the plastic lid as a marvel of engineering or design, to me they have always represented the pinnacle of consumerist, throw-away culture, objects discarded thoughtlessly by those who ought to know better. Sure there are as many kind of trash out there on the street as there are products being sold in stores (and more) but lids more than anything seem to scream out like the most eager contestants at this year's pageant of trash: "Pick me! Pick me!"
Well, this all happened to be at the time I started learning about some of the folks i mentioned in the first paragraph above, people who have been taking trash collection and recycling to the next level, and people who see garbage not just as something that needs to be whisked away from sight as soon as possible, but something that needs to be made public, and made visible, in ways people hadn't dreamed of. I mean, if you haven't clicked the link up there about Mark Olivier in Berkeley, and seen pictures of his front yard, then try it now...
So I got to talking to Rachel at Philz about whether or not Ray & I could do a little "lid display" right there by the trash cans, something that would maybe make customers like me smile for sure, but hopefully also make them think a little as they threw away another day's cup, another day's lid... I was thinking first about a mobile shaped like a Christmas tree, with the lids rotating in the draft, the whole body of the tree formed by the collective body of suspended lids. That 'sculpture' is still to come, since I was balking at the idea of buying lots of string/fishing line and other materials I would need to make something designed to point out how many materials we buy and trash in our everyday lives.
But then, at home, my eyes settled on a hapless little artificial tree that's been sitting in my room since last year, waiting for its turn to be re-decorated for the season. This didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, so I brought it in one day, and with the blessing of Rachel and the others at Philz, so was born what is the first in-cafe trash installation that I've seen in my own cafe-going days:
In the week or so since, the number of lids has grown steadily--I've added a lot, but we've asked other customers, too, to tie their lids to the tree. And, like you can see here, some have got a little creative with it:
Nice, right? So now, as Christmas approaches and as the end of the holiday season is just around the corner, I'm starting to wonder what is going to happen to all those 100+ lids. Truth be told, it's only a fraction of what customers in this Berkeley store probably use and pitch every day. And these lids aren't probably going to meet a better fate than those in the bin below it, or in the trash can at the front of the store, or in the public cans up and down the street, or those here and there, lying on the streets, waiting to be picked up by neighborhood or city trash cleaners.
But, at very least, I've tried to start bringing a thermos to cafes when I can, and I've had a lot of interesting conversations with people sitting close to the tree when hanging lids. I'm thankful for the good humor of all the friendly Philz baristas, and just want to ask you: if you see me taking a lid for my in-store paper coffee cup, please, call me out on it!!
And speaking of Philz, amidst all that there's been a little story growing up in the hallway of that popular coffee spot in north Berkeley, where I like most of the other customers have been tossing my paper coffee cup and plastic lid into the separate recycling and trash containers they have set out there. "Cup separate from lid" because, while the paper cups are deemed recyclable materials by the City of Berkeley, the lids are not. I've been going there for weeks, almost every day in the haze of revising, editing, and formatting my dissertation throwing away cup after lid after cup after lid after cup after...
This got me thinking, because on our recent pick in the Mission district in San Francisco i had re-encountered a bunch of my old nemesis from picks past--the infamous plastic coffee lid, most commonly in white, sometimes in black, and there must be other colors too. While there are some people who apparently sing the accolades of the plastic lid as a marvel of engineering or design, to me they have always represented the pinnacle of consumerist, throw-away culture, objects discarded thoughtlessly by those who ought to know better. Sure there are as many kind of trash out there on the street as there are products being sold in stores (and more) but lids more than anything seem to scream out like the most eager contestants at this year's pageant of trash: "Pick me! Pick me!"
Well, this all happened to be at the time I started learning about some of the folks i mentioned in the first paragraph above, people who have been taking trash collection and recycling to the next level, and people who see garbage not just as something that needs to be whisked away from sight as soon as possible, but something that needs to be made public, and made visible, in ways people hadn't dreamed of. I mean, if you haven't clicked the link up there about Mark Olivier in Berkeley, and seen pictures of his front yard, then try it now...
So I got to talking to Rachel at Philz about whether or not Ray & I could do a little "lid display" right there by the trash cans, something that would maybe make customers like me smile for sure, but hopefully also make them think a little as they threw away another day's cup, another day's lid... I was thinking first about a mobile shaped like a Christmas tree, with the lids rotating in the draft, the whole body of the tree formed by the collective body of suspended lids. That 'sculpture' is still to come, since I was balking at the idea of buying lots of string/fishing line and other materials I would need to make something designed to point out how many materials we buy and trash in our everyday lives.
But then, at home, my eyes settled on a hapless little artificial tree that's been sitting in my room since last year, waiting for its turn to be re-decorated for the season. This didn't seem like it was going to happen anytime soon, so I brought it in one day, and with the blessing of Rachel and the others at Philz, so was born what is the first in-cafe trash installation that I've seen in my own cafe-going days:
In the week or so since, the number of lids has grown steadily--I've added a lot, but we've asked other customers, too, to tie their lids to the tree. And, like you can see here, some have got a little creative with it:
Nice, right? So now, as Christmas approaches and as the end of the holiday season is just around the corner, I'm starting to wonder what is going to happen to all those 100+ lids. Truth be told, it's only a fraction of what customers in this Berkeley store probably use and pitch every day. And these lids aren't probably going to meet a better fate than those in the bin below it, or in the trash can at the front of the store, or in the public cans up and down the street, or those here and there, lying on the streets, waiting to be picked up by neighborhood or city trash cleaners.
But, at very least, I've tried to start bringing a thermos to cafes when I can, and I've had a lot of interesting conversations with people sitting close to the tree when hanging lids. I'm thankful for the good humor of all the friendly Philz baristas, and just want to ask you: if you see me taking a lid for my in-store paper coffee cup, please, call me out on it!!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Welome to the Jack London Square pick!
Tomorrow (Sunday, 12/18) we'll gather in Jack London Square, Oakland, at 1pm for some trash cleaning in and around the square. Welcome first-time pickers and many-time pickers alike! Podcast-making will follow an hour or so of trash picking. If you have plastic bags and a pair of gloves to bring, great. We'll bring a few extra picksticks. See you there!
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