Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2007 > April > 22
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Neighbors unite to help keep their community clean
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They act as if we are invisible.
And if you’ve ever picked up garbage alongside a public road, or in your ‘hood, you know what I mean. The reactions you get.
Few smiles or nods of acknowledgement. Mostly blank stares, aloof expressions.
Some residents of the Wyntree subdivision got that treatment Saturday morning. A dozen or so volunteered to pick up discards along Medlock Bridge Road and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Their neighborhood, a 228-home swim-tennis community in Norcross, sits a few blocks from the intersection.
David Proud, the homeowners association president, had been collecting trash alone. He decided to make it a neighborhood campaign and organized Saturday’s event. The subdivision may adopt the road through Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful.
What started out as a one-man anti-litter crusade may grow into an ongoing project.
“One theory is that when people see an area that has trash, they are more likely to throw trash out,” says Proud, 29, a network administrator for Consumer Source in Norcross. “But they are less likely to throw it out in those areas that are kept clean.
“This is a high-traffic area. We’re bound to get trash.”
Before the residents started work Saturday, they were split into teams and assigned one of six zones. They trolled about a quarter-mile down each direction of Peachtree Industrial and Medlock Bridge roads, filling up bags along the way.
The bounty exemplified the usual crap motorists toss out windows rather than keep in their precious vehicles. Half-empty soda bottles. Cigarette cartons. Fast-food wrappers and bags.
Proud holds up a bag from a Popeyes Fried Chicken and Biscuits restaurant.
“I know this has been here for months,” he tells me. “We’re not going to stop it all. We just want to reduce it. If we can do this once a quarter, I definitely think it won’t get this bad. I’ve been here six years, and I’m going to stay and fight.
“I mean, how far north can people keep moving? Flowery Branch? Forsyth County?”
Rich Zelnick and his sons, Sky, 3, and Miles, 11, lent a hand. The boys had wanted to stay home and watch cartoons, but you wouldn’t know it by the fun they were having. Zelnick kept them away from the busy roads to concentrate on common areas.
“Now they’re involved,” said Zelnick, a U.S. Postal Service employee who moved to Wyntree last March.
In all, the volunteers collected about 10 garbage bags of waste, including part of a bumper.
Sanjay Patel, a 10-year resident of Wyntree, posed a question: “How often are you going to do this, David?”
“It depends on the support,” he answered.
I think he has some volunteers he can rely on.
• Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
