Litter Patrol Ahead

One more safety item is a movable road sign indicating that people are working ahead. All government programs ask that road signs be used for safety reasons.

When I first started to patrol for road litter, it was totally unpractical for me to use government supplied road signs and safety equipment. It was far more dangerous and unrealistic for me to drive across the peninsula to get the signs, return to where I would pick up road litter and set them up. Then shuffle around moving them as I progressed down the road to meet government spacing regulations. Then return them to the other side of the peninsula and drive back home. That would have been over a 40 mile trip compared to a 2 mile trip if I did not go after the signs.

However, if signs are set up it does add a bit of awareness that people are working ahead which could be construed as additional security. If signs can be easily set up without additional risks and unpractical situations, I endorse their use. That is why EnviroCorps purchased some road signs for volunteers to use.

Safety vest and hard hat

Some people have an aversion to wearing a hard hat and other safety gear. It does take a little getting used to wearing a hard hat and keeping it on your head when bending over. However, the positives out way the negatives.

When walking along a road, it is best to wear clothing that makes you very visible to drivers. That is one purpose of safety gear. When reaching into roadside brush to retrieve litter, my hard hat has prevented me form getting scratches or cuts on my head many times. It also helps if I experience an unexpected rain shower.

People do slow down when they observe people wearing official safety gear. I recommend any one patrolling for road litter to wear a safety vest and hard hat.

Once I had the proper bags and a pick up tool for collecting road litter, another problem developed. How to keep the litter bag open as I was attempting to place something in it? I searched the internet for an answer to this problem and ran across the E-ZEE LitterBag Caddy. I ordered one and found it helped a lot. However, after a time, my wrist would get sore constantly tipping up the heavy bag of litter to add more litter. Keeping the bag attached to the litter caddy also proved problematic. I was also recycling aluminum cans which meant I needed to dump out all the litter after I collected it to sort out the cans.

A solution to these problems needed to be found and there seemed to be nothing on the market that would do that. After some thought and experimentation, I came up with the dual litter bag caddy. It is quite simple and solved all my problems. Litter can be sorted as one collects it. Having two bags with a handle in the center helps balance the load and keeps the bags open without making my wrist sore. It also keeps the bags higher off the ground so they do not drag as much.

This tool is made out of one-half inch heavy PVC. The square frames holding the bags has stainless steel fasteners in each corner spaced the right distance to keep the bag draw cord tight. With the first several caddys, I made the handle about 8 inches long. It was extended to about 11 inches so that it balanced better when the bags got heavier. It also allowed the carrier to fit my body and legs better. If you do any amount of road litter patrolling, I suggest you make yourself one of these tools.

A tool to liminate a negative

Another negative problem I ran into when patrolling for road litter was constantly stopping and bending over to pick up litter. I was trying to get some exercise and my heart rate up. Stopping was not allowing that. It helped to pick up the same stretch of road more often so that there was less litter to pick up. However, that defeated the incentive of providing a community service of picking up litter.

The answer was a Professional Grade Pick-Up Tool. This tool makes the job so much easier. I now can pick up most of the litter with out stopping, let alone bending over. I recommend anyone patrolling for road litter should have one of these tools. Several companies sell them. Arc Mate will personally label the tool for you.

How a volunteer found My Power Mall

When I created EnviroCorps and set up a web site, it was very surprising to discover how expensive it can become. I personally fronted over $12,000 to create the web site and hoped members would help cover ongoing expenses. It turns out that most people that donate their time with us were not willing to also contribute money. Some other way of developing an income for the organization was needed.

In searching the Internet I came across "Shop for Charity Day" and decided to join it. It was very similar to a program that a local merchant had successfully run for years in our local community. Each time a member shopped in his store and gave the organization their receipts, the merchant would make a donation to the organization based on a percentage of the sales slips.
EnviroCorps joined and when I or my wife purchased something on line, EnviroCorps received a percentage of the sales amount. However, EnviroCorps did not have many members and when members did shop on line they were not thinking of EnviroCorps or doing it in a way that benefited EnviroCorps.

Other organizations must have had the same problem. Together We Can Change The World, Inc., the owner of Shop for Charity Day, created My Power Mall (MPM). The difference was the organization now shared part of the rebate with shopping member and others that help bring in new members. This is a win for the organization, a win for people working to grow the program and a win for the shopper.

Let me know what you think of this blog. Is it understandable? Do you have suggestions for improving it? I would like to hear from you.

Negative litter patrol problems overcome

To volunteer in a consistent manner, one needs to guard against burn out. That means the positives must out weigh the negatives over time.

Years back, I was encouraged by others to pick up road litter in my neighborhood. There was plenty of it! In fact that was one of the problems. I quickly collected far more litter than would fit in our household garbage can which was picked up once a week. Taking it to the local trash transfer service was way to expensive.

Another problem was the plastic bags I could purchase were to fragile for picking up road litter. They ripped and tore and simply would not safely hold the litter. The county adopt-a-road program which supplied litter bags was not practical for me at the time so, I gave up on patrolling for road litter.

After I retired, I needed more exercise and turned to patrolling for litter again. I contacted my county councilman and he arranged for me to get strong litter bags through him and for the county to pick up and dispose of the litter. I still was unwilling to join the impractical adopt-a-road program, but the negative issues I had faced before were overcome and I started to patrol for litter on a regular basis.

If the person that was encouraging people to pick up litter had addressed these and other problems in the first place, that person may have been more successful. This is what I did, when I eventually created EnviroCorps. Because the negatives were addressed, the positives have out weighed the negatives and I and other volunteer are regularly picking up road litter.

How have you addressed negative problems when volunteering?

Are you a volunteer?

To answerer the question, are you a volunteer, we need a definition of Volunteer of which there are many. This is my definition.

VOLUNTEER: A person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service while having no legal concern or interest, no moral or social obligation, and without being asked to volunteer by a friend or relative or organization of which you are a member.

Yes, this is a very restrictive definition, but I find it is also the most rewarding type of volunteering. When people respond to a friend's or organization's request of which they are a member, there is always some moral or social pressure applied. So in my mind it is not totally voluntary. Do not get me wrong! There is absolutely nothing wrong with responding positively to such requests. Just be aware that you will not get the maximum benefit from this sort of volunteering. However, it is a very good place to start volunteering.

Now you may be thinking that volunteering is all about giving without "benefitting". I can guarantee that if you are not receiving some sort of benefit, you will not volunteer very long. There are many benefits from volunteering. Understanding what your needs are and volunteering in a way that maximizes them is simply smart volunteering.

So, are you a volunteer, or should I ask, what kind of volunteer are you? Are you benefitting from volunteering? I would like to hear from you. Give me some feedback.