08/16/2006: "Who Are The "Trash Masters"?"

By David Dehlendorf

Trash Masters is a group of 27 dedicated volunteers who collect litter along Roche Harbor Rd. on the third Thursday of each month. (They do not work in July and August when the Public Works hires youths to clean all county roads.) Formed in March 2005, Trash Masters has to-date collected approximately 3,100 lbs. of litter from our island's busiest and dirtiest road. Most of the Trash Masters were previously active in picking up trash when walking in their own neighborhoods. However, in early 2005 they decided to also attack the problem on Roche Harbor Rd. after observing the increasing amount of litter while driving to and from Friday Harbor.

Trash Masters is actively supported by Patt Martin, Litter Crew Coordinator for San Juan County Public Works. On each work day, Patt puts out safety cones and signs, supplies the volunteers with safety vests, grabbers, gloves, and bags, and collects the filled bags of trash when work is completed. Without Patt's support, it would be much more difficult for Trash Masters to complete its work efficiently and safely. She also supports other individual volunteers on Orcas, Lopez, and Shaw. If anyone would like to request Patt's assistance in collecting litter, either as an individual or a group, you should call her at 378-7850.

Trash Masters and its volunteers were the leaders in forming the new San Juan Island Anti-Litter Initiative in June 2006.

Carole and Jack Woolsey are walkers. Six days a week, they set out from their home on Franck Street and walk for about an hour, taking a different route each day. Carole takes along a trash grabber and several white plastic bags, and Jack takes along a walking stick. Along their route, Carole picks litter up and puts it in one of her bags. Jack uses his walking stick to point out things that Carole doesn't spot, and sometimes uses the stick to dislodge bottles and other things that are in the bushes. They have been doing this for almost two years.

Carole says she became obsessed with picking up litter after doing one roadside clean-up with the Trash Masters group on Roche Harbor Road. After that experience, she says that she just cringed every time she passed litter when out walking with Jack. So she got herself a trash grabber and became a regular litter-picker-upper. "It's fun," says Carole. "People drop all kinds of interesting things along the road. Once we found a $20 bill. We've even picked up a dirty diaper. Mostly, we get napkins, Kleenex, drink cups and tops, and plastic bottles. On many days, I fill up two bags rather than just one."

Marcy Hahn, who has noticed lots of ferry overload tags on island roadsides, decided to see how much time it would take to remove the tags from all the cars during a crossing from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. Returning from one of her "COSTCO runs," she left her parked car and resolutely walked through the car decks, taking the tags out from under the windshield wipers of all the cars. It took her about 20 minutes, and she says she enjoyed the fresh air and exercise, as well as the quizzical looks she got from drivers who couldn't quite figure out what she was up to. She then decided to create a masterpiece for the "Trash to Treasures" booth at the County Fair, and won first prize.

Marcy comments that even if she hadn't won a prize, her reward was knowing that she had prevented as many as100 paper tags from becoming litter on Island roadsides. (In June, two volunteers from Trash Masters picked up 35 tags in only three miles along Roche Harbor Rd.) We wonder why the ferry system hasn't been able to come up with a better system to use in Anacortes. In Friday Harbor, dry-erase markers are used for counting and overload purposes, and this seems to be working quite well. Alternatively, can't the ferry personnel remove the paper tags while the ferries are en route, just as Marcy did?

Susie Doyle, the owner of Susie's Mopeds, is an enthusiastic member of the San Juan Island Anti-Litter Initiative. For many years, she has handed all of her customers a small plastic bag with her business name and logo printed on the front, asking them to help keep our island clean. She tells them to bring back whatever trash they generate, and she will take care of disposing of it.

But Susie does more than just dispose of it. She goes through all the bags that her customers bring back and sorts out the recyclables from the garbage. She then personally takes everything that can be recycled to the transfer station, and throws everything else into her dumpster, absorbing the cost of having that dumpster emptied. She says she fills several large Hefty garbage bags every week.

Numerous Unnamed Individuals< also regularly collect litter when walking in their neighborhoods on San Juan Island. Thanks to all of you for making our island an even more attractive and healthy place to live.

What You Can Do
Get involved in preventing litter. Remove ferry tags from your windshields when en route from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. Pick-up litter when walking in your neighborhoods. Cover your load when driving to the transfer station. Talk to your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow workers about how we can all contribute to the elimination of litter on our island.