garbage

Every day I walk to work.  It's a 30-minute walk next to a busy two-lane road.  It's a nice walk but man, there is a lot of garbage on the ground.  Mostly plastic bottles and candy wrappers but I've also seen large trash bags.  Anyway, since arriving in Liverpool, this has been a disappointment.  Now and then I'd try to pick up a piece of trash and throw it away but that is just a small step.  After a few weeks of my disgust, I've noticed that one reason there is so much trash everywhere is that there aren't any trash cans available.  Today I carried my apple core for 20 minutes before finding a can.  No wonder there's so much on the ground.  And I guess the reason there aren't many trash receptors (and those are usually filled to overflowing) is that someone would have to pick the trash up and that would require another salary.  Well, the grounds at St. Gregory's has a fair amount of trash too.  And since today was another pleasant, sunny day I found a trash bag and started cleaning up.  Surprisingly, the kids suddenly started to help, aided by these cool little mechanical arms that grab things by squeezing a trigger.  We picked up two bags of trash and even had a little fun while doing it.  At one point the kitchen lady came out and put sunscreen on the kids (rolling eyes) and somehow the boys managed to fight over the same piece of trash.  Otherwise, we had a good afternoon.