Litter

WHILE CANDIDATES gear up for primary day tomorrow, some Philadelphians are getting ready to bust out their brooms to sweep up campaign fliers they expect to see lining streets and stoops. Campaign staffers insist they're not looking to leave materials anywhere they can, including your doorstep. Instead, they say, they're handing them to people individually, or sticking them into doorjambs if no one answers while canvassing. "It doesn't make sense for us financially to leave it on the ground, and it doesn't make any sense environmentally to leave it on the ground," said Sam Durso, campaign manager for City Council candidate Jeff Hornstein.

Those who think that only New Jersey beaches have a litter problem should take a look around any beach, city, or town. Litter is a bane the world over. Marine debris is a serious problem, especially for marine animals, which can be harmed from entanglement by or ingestion of plastics. It can also render beaches a disgrace. In New Jersey, we take pride in our beaches and defend our waters tenaciously. Recently, thousands flocked to Jersey's beaches and volunteered for Clean Ocean Action's Beach Sweeps.

The onslaught of "BigBelly" public recycling bins and solar-powered trash compactors continues! The Streets Department began by putting nearly 500 of them in Center City, and last August placed more in other neighborhoods, including West Oak Lane. Now, the city is Bellying up South Street, placing 50 of them along the iconic way. But, seeing as how it's South Street, the Bellies just had to have a bit more pizzazz, apparently. So the department paired up with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and its "Big Picture" students, ages 10 to 14, who get mural training and visual-arts education with a focus on community and social responsibility.

SANDY HOOK, N.J. - A bag of heroin, a 10-gallon gas tank, five pairs of underwear, a duck caller, and a plastic cow were among the nearly half-million pieces of trash picked up from New Jersey's beaches by volunteers last year. It may appear that everything but the kitchen sink turned up. But that would be wrong: There was one of those, too. Clean Ocean Action, an environmental group that has been doing beach sweeps for 25 years, said in a report released Tuesday that an all-time high of 475,321 pieces of litter was removed from the state's 127-mile shoreline last year.

ABOUT 100 VOLUNTEERS, joined by Mayor Nutter, got a little sweaty fighting grime as they raked, swept and painted at the Cecil B. Moore Recreation Center, in North Philadelphia, to make it sparkle during the 2011 Philly Spring Cleanup on April 2. Four days later, the center again had become a dumping ground, with more than 10 bags of trash, plastic bottles and a garbage-filled cardboard box lining the black, wrought-iron fence outside the center....

How should we get rid of all that litter? "There should be more private contractors, where instead of it just being a city service, maybe we should pay more people to pick up more trash. " - Daniel Frank, 36, of Manayunk, who was visiting Chinatown, at 10th and Arch. "I think the city could have street sweepers cycle through every couple of weeks. That would help. " - Victor Lewis, who lives near Ridge and Midvale avenues, in East Falls. "They need to stop all the circulars from going out, all the menus, they bring them out every day. All the neighbors need to come out and clean in front of their homes.

ENTER THE MIND of a serial litterbug, the empty-souled trash tosser, and you'll find a person who can't differentiate right from wrong, or a Philadelphia street from a garbage dump. These people don't love trash, like Oscar the Grouch; they simply don't think about it at all. They're the Ted Bundys of improper waste disposal, tossing a beer can with the same hands they use to pray or pet their dog, with no remorse. "Those kind of people are crumbs. They just don't care," said Mario Monzo of DeMarco's Deli, on Jackson Street near South Philadelphia High School.

It's an audacious undertaking to try to revive the entire downtown of a major city just one scrap of litter at a time. But that simple idea - and then some - is behind the success of Philadelphia's Center City District, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. With funding provided by Center City property owners, the district on a daily basis fields uniformed street cleaners, as well as roving guides who advise tourists and serve in an eyes-and-ears role to report crime and other problems to police and City Hall.

This is another in our series about people who make things happen. If you know people who roll up their sleeves and make things happen, let us know and I will share their stories with our readers. THE CALICO STALKED the lump of salmon like a lion in tall grass stalking a wildebeest. A smaller, raven-black male mimicked her every move from a safe distance. After four or five passes around the front of the trap, she took a furtive step onto a blue pillow case that lined the bottom of the steel mesh enclosure.

The first neighborhood cleanup of the UnLitter Us campaign - which started with poetic public-service announcements and advertisements across the city - is officially under way. The project began last week in Frankford with a Streets Department crew set to spend two weeks thoroughly sanitizing the area. Theresa Hanas, coordinator for the Frankford Community Development Corp., says the program will succeed because residents have had enough with litter problems and unsuccessful initiatives.