AIN'T IT AWFUL! Have you ever played the game, "Ain't It Awful?" Here's how it goes. You're riding along the highway and see a bag of trash tossed out along side the road, and as you pass it by you say, "Ain't it awful! How could someone do something like that?" You speed down the road, however, and do not stop to pick it up. It's not your trash. You didn't throw it out. Besides, it might mess up the car if you did pick it up and put it in the trunk. Furthermore, what would you do with it once you get home? Whatever the reasons for not picking it up, most of us have played the game. A few weeks ago while riding to work, I passed some cans on the road and, you guessed it, said, Ain't it awful! I rode on for a few yards, and then turned around and picked up the mess. Now on a bike there is limited space to carry things and every pound that is added to the already 35 pounds of the iron horse's initial mass, means that I'll have to peddle all that much more. So what? I picked up the cans and crushed them, and placed bottles into my clothes bags outside compartment, and before I knew it, I had a veritable trash bag full. Conveniently, I found a discarded K-Mart plastic bag and used it to wrap loose paper cups, straws and other styrofoam containers. I imagine I spent 5-10 minutes picking up trash, and then I was once again on my way. I got to work and tossed all that I had picked up into our outside trashtainer, and went into my office. On the way home, I noticed that I missed some things on the other side of the road, so I stopped and picked up what I found along the way and felt pretty good about cleaning up the route that I traveled every day to work. The very next day I found more trash on the very same path. I'm not sure if the seven-up can had a litter the night before and I only picked up mama. Other cans were now on or near the road. They were not covered with dirt and squashed so I am sure that they were deposited between the time I rode home and daybreak. I picked them up too. Each and every day since for the past two weeks, I stopped and picked up anything that I found along the way. I am amazed that even though I committed myself to pick up any and all trash along the way, each day there is more. Duhring Road is no major thoroughfare, and I am appalled that so many people can with malice of forethought cast their Uni-Mart styrofoam cups and Iron City Light beer cans out onto the road. When I hear people complain about what's wrong with America today, I need only point out to them the trash on my road. There are no poor people living around me. There are no drug dealers or other criminals walking the motorcycle paths in search of customers. Those who vacation in this area surely must be doing well financially or else they wouldn't have the resources to come and "play" in my backyard. No, what's wrong with America, it seems to me, is that for some reason, Americans are into pointing the finger at others, at Government, at other groups of people, and not at themselves, or more personally, at myself. I never throw things out the window, but I do bag up my trash and send it off a few times a year to end up in some landfill. I still made the trash. It is mine in trust until it is properly disposed of in what we consider to be "socially acceptable" ways of dumping it. Somehow, this stinks. Not the trash, but the creating of it. What can you or I do about just this one problem? Well, let me suggest a few notions on how to minimize our impact upon Mother Earth. Stop and pick up any trash that you see. This may take some time and you cannot get it all, but if each one of us started to pick up just a few cans or bottles each and every day sooner than later, a noticeable dent in the trash along the highways will begin to disappear. Compost your biodegradable home wastes like lettuce, corn husks, leftover foods (everything except meat and other animal byproducts). These should be fed to a cat or dog. Maybe that's the only reason I have a pet anyhow. To deal with the organic matter, I suggest getting a 30-50 gallon size garbage can or an old barrel, cutting out the bottom of it, and burying it in the ground leaving only about 2" of it sticking up above the surface. Place all biodegradable matter into it and cover it well. I put a large brick on top of mine to keep marauding animals out of it. Fourteen years ago I started composting kitchen and garden wastes in this fashion, and over the years, I still have not filled the container once. All sorts of carnivorous insects inhabit the can's innards. I admit I hold my breath when I open the can up to dispose of new waste products, but once it is closed, I never smell anything. Take all aluminum cans, crush them, and keep them in a separate container. When the Boy or Girl Scouts are looking for a project to raise money, give them your supply. Glass, cans, bottles, and a host of other items can be cleaned, bagged separately and recycled in Leeper behind the Red and White food store. This is a much nicer burial ground than along the pristine rural roads of Forest County. Then there is paper, paper products, and all sorts of other burnable items. Luckily, we are still able to burn such waste here. Someday, we may not be able to do so. In Colorado, my friend, Ken Eye, was not permitted to burn trash in an open fire pit. So he took an old hot water tank cover, mounted a tight screen on the top of it so that nothing but hot air could escape, installed a fan in the bottom to circulate air inside the burning chamber, and now he burns his trash in an absolutely safe way. You see, the fan forces air inside the burn chamber and acts much like a blacksmith's bellows. As the trash burns, it is stirred up constantly and burns until there is almost nothing left to it but the minerals contained in the material. Once a year, Ken empties the mineral deposits in his garden, and no one is the wiser. Buy milk in paper cartons instead of plastic. Once emptied and filled with water, they make great ice blocks for ice cream, or to fill the empty spaces in your freezer. Plastic milk jugs can be used for many things. I cut out a hole on the side and keep different sized nails in them. The handle makes it easy for me to carry the nails that I need to the job that I am doing. My neighbor used full milk jugs tied to his tarp on his firewood lot to keep the rain off the wood. Filled with water, each jug weighs 7.5 pounds which is more than enough to keep the wind from lifting the tarp up and blowing it away. I'm sure that you could think of some other creative uses for those indestructible objects. Catalogs and other glossy printed matter are one of the most difficult things to dispose of effectively. They don't burn well, cannot be used as tinder to start a fire, and are just plain a nuisance. Write to those people who send you catalogs and tell them to stop. Better yet, call them on THEIR 800 number and tell them. Those catalogs that you use, bundle them with masking tape, start a hot fire in the fireplace and burn them like logs. They will smolder for awhile, but eventually they will ignite and burn in a host of kaleidoscopic colors. Use biodegradable toilet paper in your bathroom and give your septic system or the local sewage system a break. It's available at most travel trailer retail stores like Schwen's. Park your car and ride a bike. I sometimes wonder if a billion Chinese know something we Americans do not. Better yet, walk, and carry a trash bag with you as you exercise by picking up what others have left behind. If you're walking, wear sandals instead of shoes and socks. As Cliff Claven said on the very last Cheers episode, those who have made a significant impact upon the world have always worn comfortable footwear. And most of them, sandals. Besides that, it's easier to wash your feet than a pair of socks. We'll still need to continue to use the landfill system until recycling becomes a way of life. Until then, you and I can make a difference. Nobody can beat me anymore at playing "Ain't it Awful" because I refuse to play.