Litter with a Story To Tell: Green Up Day Photos 2014 South Burlington VT

On Vermont Green Up Day, among the litter yuck there was lots of cool and cute.

Photo credit for this pic: Steve Silverman.

South Burlington Vt Green Up Day event saw 284 participants pick up litter throughout the city and drop it off at City Hall, along with their Treasure Trash finds. The community netted 1.96 tons of bagged trash, 1.41 tons of tires, and .6 tons of metal for a total of almost 4 tons.

Caring, contribution, and community- a wonderful combination.

Open - Sesamee!

A Very Special Thank You for the many members of the SOUTH BURLINGTON LAND TRUST for your planning, organizing, distribution of posters, writing news releases, setting up and facilitating the drop off site, and many other tasks that helps make SB Green Up Day a fun community event. Special shout out to Sophie Quest and Karen Ryder.

And of course Thank You - all who came outside into your community to clean our public areas. Caring, contribution, and community- a wonderful combination.

Thank You Pat for helping folks unload trash from their cars.

Green Up Vermont is not a state agency, but rather a non profit charitable organization. Only about 12% of their budget comes from the state.

The first Green Up Day was held in 1970.

Each year, thousands of volunteers in more than 200 Vermont towns and cities participate by helping to clean up their communities.

Thank You to this years corporate sponsors shown on the Green Up bag.

See additional major corporate donors listed at www.greenupvermont.org

Treasure trash (two $5 bills) were donated to the food drive.

Folks found treasure trash, some salvageable and reusable items, and a few unusual trash items. See if you can pick them out in the photos below.

P.S. we need your help in identifying the most unusual item. Its photo is posted further down.

We collected a bit more data this year so that we might track trends and ID the amounts of trash collected by street or area.

Still a few weeks of snowboarding in the mountains. Any takers on these slightly used Burton Snowboard boots?

Great players do good on and off the field!

Who says the sun isn't shining. It is glowing on the faces of the Green Up Day volunteers.

SB Green UP Day - bringing folks in the community out and together.

Thats a wrap. Nice job.

This guy dribbles hard.

What

A happy

Team.

Right on target!

Hey, where'd my hat go?

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your father was.
Irish Proverb

This is more fun than going to a flea market.

Neither rain, nor wind, nor snow, nor sun, will keep us from picking up old rusted mailboxes and placing them in the metal recycling bin.

We collected everything but the kitchen sink out there. Ok, hurry and take the photo, the guy with the hat on has to go.

Ok, remember we said we found everything BUT the kitchen sink out there. Well guess what someone just came in with....

Shucks, this is as much fun as a barrel or a bag of monkeys

Wrapped, tied, and delivered.

Guess putting the pedal to the metal doesn't work when your floor boards are rusted.

Filler Up

Girl Power. Now thats what I am talking about.

So that is what back seats are for.

One young lady's found trash became another young man's treasure. Re use- the best way to recycle.

Time to clean up the barbecue grill.

Hold that thought till next February.

ET Phone Home, Your mama is worried about you.

Hard working gentleman enjoying some healthy nutrition.

Much obliged to Health Living and the lovely lady in purple. Good food, hot drinks - the fuel to help kick start community socializing.

Mom, you're peeling the banana from the wrong end says the little man with his hat on backwards. Never you mind, the little Irish fellow has a nose for finding buckets of gold.

Recording unusual trash finds.

OK, breaks over, back to work.

Scouting - camaraderie, discipline, learning skills, community service:
We Salute you.

Mentors, friends, brothers, - who knows. You can just tell they look out for each other.

Infectious smile and Sarah are one.

Remember that fishing pole the young lady brought in. Well there is a young man checking it out right now.

Green Up Day brings out smiles, no matter what the weather.

Thank You Laura, and the Stream Team / Winooski Conservation District.
Keep those rain barrels rolling along. We all need to do what we can to help clean up our waterways.

Thank You Karen Joie de Vivre and Vermontivate. Building community is an ongoing process and you are adding ingredients to the mix. South Burlington Team Vermontivate held a food drive for the Chittenden County Food Shelf today at their town Green Up Day festivities and collected over 125 pounds of food!!

Food Drive. Another way members of the community give back this Green Up Day.

Cute just runneth over throughout the day.

There are just not enough hugs in the world. Enjoy them when you can.

You planning on sharing those Green Up bags brother?

For you brother, surely I will.

Thats what I'm talking about.

Better than a cup of sugar, a new neighbor helps clean up the neighborhood.

Food Drive

Cut me loose and I will clean up this community faster than Superman.

Much obliged to SB HS Sophmore Ryan Liegbegott who volunteered all day to meet and greet folks, help them dispose of the trash they brought in.

No, he is not giving her a speeding ticket. Just recording some Green Up Day data.

Another family for whom SB Green Up Day is a family tradition- along with smiling heartily.

More powerful than a locomotive.

May your generation bring us peace and a cleaner environment.

This is a generation that will take care of this precious planet.

They have the world in their gentle hands.

Here's hoping the National Guard notices how much cleaner River Cove and National Guard Roads are after our clean up in that area on Green Up Day.

ME TOO. Always working to amend the soil in our yard with natural ingredients, like our own homegrown compost, grass and leaves-natures own tonic, and even used coffee grounds from Starbucks.

Green Up Day in SB has become so popular, that even Elvis came back to join in on the fun.

Green Up Vermont -is not just a one day a year event. It is a year round philosophy and Vermont value, as well as a call to action. Bernie

Neighbor helping neighbor.

Time to see the dentist. No teeth left. (on the saw)

Remember that fishing pole the young lady brought in?
Remember the young man I told you was eye'ing it?
Guess he decided it was a good bet to land that big one that keeps getting away.

When it comes to enthusiasm and most bags cleaned up its tough to beat the GE team of volunteers. GE Healthcare won the first prize for most trash collected with 33 bags, and the South Burlington Democratic Committee won the second prize with 27 bags collected.

In case you are keeping count, this is the first of two large containers folks are filling up with collected litter/trash. Thats a lot of large bags with lots of small pieces of trash that were on public areas. Cleaned up so the greens and the multi colored flowers can show their finest to us all.

I love the color coordination. Even some of the trash is color matched.

Watch out Dracula.

I'm telling you, Green Up Day brings out the greatest smiles.

Apparently Green Up Day in SB also brings out Elvis.

And he is as popular as ever.

I enjoy talking to folks when they come by to drop off the littered trash they cleaned up. Green UP Day, is a good time and opportunity to meet folks in the community.

I have turned this photo every which way, to no avail. The dots keep falling off.

The list of Unusual trash continues to grow. What piece will win the most unusual trash contest?

There is now an App for Green Up Day. However we went low tech this year. Maybe next year we might test out the App to track hot spots of trash.

Thank You to all the sponsors of Vermont Green Up Day and particularly to those who sponsor SB Green UP Day directly.

Keeping the Green Mountain State Green and Clean.

Green Up Day 2014 was the year of the stylish boots for sure.

Magical Mystery Tour waiting to take you away.

Army Strong!

This former police officer carries the message of driving at a safe speed- with him wherever he goes. Much obliged for your extra effort in picking up bags left on the road side by folks who could not bring them in to the drop off site.

Especially rewarding to see many of the same faces year after year helping to clean our community on Green Up Day.

Elvis has left the building, however, not before I obtained his autograph. Its gotta be worth millions! But I will never sell.