7th Annual Bayou Dularge Trash Bash a Trashing Success!

A dog, a dumpster, door prizes, a Higgins, and a 75 energetic volunteers.  That’s all it takes to have a successful bayou cleanup!

Duke

Higgins Boat

You just never know what you’re going to find–trash or treasure–during a trash bash down the bayou.

Texas

trashy.art

The weather treated us well with a nice breeze and plenty of sunshine and blue skies.

throwing.trash.

The only unwelcome volunteers were the biting gnats.  Check out that innovative gnat net.

dennis.net

And on we go, letting the photos tell the story of a fabulous day of serving community.

tommy.catherine.mark

kids.

john.dennis

dumpster.gang

Cougan

cougan.dennis.

throwing.trash.

rickey

side.of.dumpster

the.group

dining.room

hat.lady

moon.door.prize

dumpster.banner

Isn’t she lovely?

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One more successful Trash Bash hits the books.  Thanks so much to all the sponsors and volunteers!

For the bayou,

BW

(PS:  for the faithful readers, I didn’t get to plant mangroves on Raccoon Island.  They had me scheduled to plant on Sunday, but they finished up late Saturday afternoon, much to their joy and much to my disappointment.)

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40 Comments

  1. Looks like a lot of fun but alot of hard work too! I bet everything looks beautiful now! Hope to make the next one!

    1. It is good, Kim, but it would be even better if we NEVER had to do this again! That means, by example, we’ve prevented litter and done some long-term good!

  2. Glad y’all had a good turn out. I’d love to see no more post like this. Meaning of course, people started disposing of thier trash properly so you wouldn’t have to write about it. I’d also like to be able to drive down a highway on the weekend and not see people doing court ordered community service picking up trash.

    1. Well, quite honestly, we’d rather see no litter, but since litter is an everyday offense, then I’d rather see it being picked up by people paying dues and by prisoners doing time than our having to pay for it another way, wouldn’t you? I’ll be honest, the oyster boats near the end of the road have been like the elephant in the room. But our councilman came down and saw for himself what we’ve been dealing with, and hopefully, he will get involved and get the dock owners to make those boat crews throw their trash where it goes instead of in the bayou and on the dock where the wind sweeps it into the water. There is a language barrier, but if someone slaps a fine on the boats AND the dock owner, I bet they’d understand English real quick!!!

      1. There is not much of a language barrier.They understand AND can communicate if it’s something of interest to them.! They just don’t give a %@#* because it doesn’t belong to them. I knew y’all had a problem in the past with this same group.
        Y’all are calling the wrong person for help. Call in the FEDS. I know someone whose subdivision kept having things stolen when there was a lot of new construction in his subdivision. He got fed up with the situation and made that call. The construction workers scattered when the FEDS showed up. The contractor was without help, and I believe he got into a little trouble himself.

  3. I am glad you had a good turn out. I hope you did not have bad weather today like we did. We had hail in central mississippi that was almost as big as a baseball that did a lot of damage to roofs and cars.

    1. We have had beautiful weather, Louise. And it’s a shame I’ve not been out on the water enjoying it! Looks like spring sprang overnight down here! It’s pretty amazing!

  4. Looks like you could have used another dumpster! I wish people would teach themselves and their families that litter is nasty, ugly and frequently dangerous. They either do not know or simply do not care that cigarette butts can smolder for up to 2 hours before starting a grass fire. I don’t like seeing them in the lakes floating around either or in my yard! Glass bottles are treacherous!! Had a friend ejected thru the sunroof in a bad accident several years ago. She landed on broken glass and was virtually gutted. She pulled thru but, it took a lot of time, money and therapy. We spent about half an hour yesterday cleaning the yard of litter before we could mow. I wish more time was spent teaching our children the hazards of litter.

    Oh well, I’ll step off that soap box and say your bayou looks even more fabulous when cleaned by those who love and respect her. Everyone did a great job.

    1. Everyone says education is the key, and I was wondering if anyone remembers having any anti-litter education as kids? I think people are just lazy, and that is why they don’t keep a litter bag in their cars—they’re too lazy to empty it out.

      We have had two dumpsters in the past, but last year the turnout wasn’t as great, AND now the local government has us jumping through its hoops, which means it might have been difficult for us to get two dumpsters for free. But the good news is our parish councilman was there and he saw the need, so maybe he will be our new advocate!

      1. I keep two litter bags in my car. One is a small, homemade one a friend gave me back in the early ’90s and slips over the gear shift and is washable. The other is a simple plastic bag that i stick under the seat. When filled, it goes into the trash barrel. I am a stickler for clean areas. I even recycle newspapers/cardboard/etc.

      2. Gosh, I had anti-litter education from the time I was big enough to create litter. Mom and Dad were my teachers, and Grandma and Grandpa. From picking up toys to picking up my gum wrappers instead of just dropping them in the yard, I learned pretty early.

        In school, one of the things we did every Friday during recess was spend 15 minutes picking up any trash we found around the school, to leave things tidy for the weekend.

        And not only that – we learned this rule: “Even if you didn’t drop it, pick it up!” I still find myself doing that. An empty plastic coke bottle in the parking lot? I may grumble at people who’d let their stuff blow around, but I pick it up.

        Our trash bash is this coming weekend. It’s always a big deal, and we get a BUNCH of trash every year. It’s one of the costs of being a big tourist area. People from “away” don’t seem to understand that the lake and bay they enjoy so much are their responsibility, too.

        Great photos and story – glad yours was such a success!

        1. Shore, is there any online publicity of your cleanup? If so, I’d like to see it. I guess I didn’t realize other places have litter like Louisiana. I often hear that La. has a much worse litter problem than other states. I was asking about anti-litter programs in school because I recall a couple of slogans, but I’m thinking maybe the state got away from anti-litter education. I’ve never been one to toss anything out. I just can’t fathom it. Especially on the water. And what really boggles the mind is the amount of trash I saw laying around the ball park this weekend. Children just drop their empty bottles and candy wrappers on the ground. I just don’t get it. I will be watching from now on to see if I can catch them at it and give them a lesson they won’t soon forget. I think cleaning up the playground is a GREAT IDEA, with the attitude that you pick it up even if you didn’t drop it. Soon enough, those who litter will be tired of picking up after others, I would think! Thanks for sharing!

            1. This has to be part of the Great American Cleanup they call “South by Southwest”! I haven’t finished reading their site yet, but I’m also noticing they have the Registered symbol behind the words Trash Bash! Eeks! I had no clue those words were the registered trademark of an established group. We just thought it sounded cool when we started this 7 years ago! Thanks for the link. On second look, it’s not part of the GAC. It’s an independent cleanup and wow, this is serious business!

          1. If folks realized how rampant this issue is – especially in wetlands/waterways – they’d be shocked. We’ve participated (and helped run on occasion) these sort o’ cleanups and seen everything from an “orbit” o’ take-out coffee cups (circle around a parking lot with a garbage drum in every corner, but not garbage IN them), to an entire motorcycle! What’s unfortunate is that too often the culprits are the folk “enjoying” these waterways (fishing, boating, camping…).

            Almost as ridiculous as the piles o’ cigarette butts on the sidewalk outside the General Hospital.

            In Canada there is the “Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup” (http://www.shorelinecleanup.ca/)

            Like Shoreacres, we were trained from an early age by family, teachers, even those old TV PSA’s with Iron Eyes Cody crying over the garbage on the land. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_America_Beautiful)

            1. Small tangent…but weirdly related. “Iron Eyes Cody” – aka “The Crying Indian” – wasn’t one. Born Espera Oscar de Corti (April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) he frequently portrayed American Indians in Hollywood films. In 1995, Cody was honored by the American Indian community for his work publicizing the plight of Native Americans, including his acting in films. In 1996, his Italian ancestry was made public.

              Early life

              Cody was born as Espera Oscar de Corti in Kaplan in Vermilion Parish in southwestern Louisiana, a second son of Antonio de Corti and his wife, Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from Sicily. He had two brothers, Joseph and Frank, and a sister, Victoria. His parents had a local grocery store in Gueydan, Louisiana, where he was reared. His father left the family and moved to Texas, where he took the name Tony Corti. His mother married Alton Abshire and had five more children with him.
              When the three De Corti brothers were teenagers, they joined their father in Texas and also shortened their last name to Corti. They moved on to California, where they started acting in movies, and each changed their surname to Cody. Joseph William and Frank Henry Cody worked as extras, but moved on to other work. Frank was killed tragically by a hit-and-run driver in 1949. The boys’ father Tony Corti died in Texas in 1924.

              1. Well, now, isn’t THAT interesting! I can’t wait to tell this to the Abshire lady from over that way who goes fishing with me sometimes. Probably history she could already tell me!!!

  5. I know it’s really like your own front yard, but thank you for cleaning up what others have discarded. We should start a drive to put litter bags in boats! At one time there was a big drive in Texas from the Highway Dept. They offered litter bags to all the car dealerships to put in new cars and cars coming out the repair dept. They offered them to the folks that cleaned the cars. You got litter bags when you bought your hunting/fishing licenses. You could not turn around that someone wasn’t offering a litter bag. People and corporations would donate to keep 10 mile stretchs of highway clean thru either trash pick up or donations that paid the sheriffs dept to have it cleaned. It was a big deal about keep Texas clean. Trash bags are really handy in a boat anyway.

    I would think that most hunters/fishermen would cross off the “X” to donate a dollar or two to cleaning the environment while getting tags. That could be used to get folks conscience with some type of media campaign. What about signs on the side of the road going to the coast? Signs at the landings? Litter bags at the dock grocery? Nothing is wrong with trash bags? It’s really an exercise in futility to keep cleaning if we can’t stop it at the source.

    There I go again, but anyway, thank you for cleaning up our mess. I appreciate it. Here’s your soapbox back Cammy.

    Just wondering BW, how much of the trash do you figure washed in and how much was deposited where you removed it?

    1. LOL… I started this then got side trached (cleaning the kitchen), then came back, you answered Cammy in that time. Doh!

      I don’t remember a clean up campaign in school, but I sure remember all the litter bags, cans on the side of the road, and Texas mounted sheriffs deputies with shotguns watching the chain-gang (or those doing public service), in Texas.

      1. We had a “Trash Keeper” mesh litter bag in our old boat. It’s stuck on with Velcro and has a zipper on the bottom of the bag for easy disposal of the trash. It was a good $10 investment. You didn’t have to worry about anything blowing out of the boat.

    1. Well, John and I were thinking we did the first one in 2006, but I don’t have photos of it. But I do have photos of 2007, and that would mean this was the seventh one. Yessiree, that would be the case. You were sorely missed, and Robert, Dennis, Chris, and I had a little talk about you. Expect some visitors at your weekend getaway!!! Dennis is about to retire and he’s going to be looking for a partner in crime, LOL!!!

  6. I think I got my first head cold since the first one. I thought M_D said 3 years last time we chatted. Another one of these 17 degrees 30 mph wind first day of spring days I’ll be down permanently.

  7. Well you clean out my bedroom down there and I’ll clean out yours up here. Its the freaking internet. Us lil old ladies in the home got to have some fun….

    1. Thanks for sharing, and I’ve been aware of that since I posted about him. That was the release I had to wait for before I could post my story about him!!!

  8. I am my wife Mary were “Down in Dularge” today, Monday 3/25. Went by your camp, but no one was there. Took a photo of the camp and will try to send to you later.

    1. How nice! I’m so sorry I missed you. I had a group of ladies staying there who left around 9 a.m. I was exhausted, so I came home, leaving some things “undone” at the camp. I don’t generally hang around there, unless there is work to be done or I’m parking my boat. Thanks for stopping by! Maybe I’ll catch you next time