Recently I spoke to a retired Sr. Property Mgr. of a National Real Estate company for large retail shopping centers.  He hired companies to maintain the 20+ exterior properties in Colorado and Arizona by: sweeping, removing snow, litter-picking, removing misplaced signs, landscaping trees/shrubs and lawn, cleaning out vacant spaces for new tenants, painting the buildings, repairing/replacing and painting asphalt, construction activities, removal of illegally parked vehicles, and Grand Openings of Grocery Stores such as King Soopers, (name of AZ).   I asked what is “litter picking” and why does it seem like our Reunion King Sooper’s Shopping Center always looked so unkept.  He said this shopping center is considered one of the worse as far as litter is concerned.  What?  No Way!  I was surprised because this part of the city is considered, “high-end” with new homes, community centers, businesses and restaurants being built.  He agreed it is a growing community with responsible citizens. 

Several days each week “litter-pickers” clean up the center and typically find:  Paper items – newspapers, magazines, receipts, bags, towels, napkins, kleenex, candy, cookie, gum wrappers, and dirty diapers.  Plastic items – bags, straws, lids, water, energy drink bottles, empty prescription bottles, syringes, pacifiers, containers and utensils from fast-food places, etc.  Other items –hundreds of cigarette butts and COVID masks, cans and glass from soda and liquor, food and gum, gloves, socks, broken furniture, tires, etc.  Each store in the center are responsible for emptying their own trash cans located in front of their store, taking trash to the large enclosed dumpsters but often times they do not open the lids of the containers nor do they close the wooden doors and wind blows it around.

So, I ask myself and I ask all of you, are we unconsciously tossing our empty, used stuff on the ground, or are we using the trash containers located outside of most buildings?  Perhaps we can take pride in our community and JUST PICK IT UP.