By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
One night as Megan Reedy walked home from her job as manager of Downtown bar in Bowling Green, she picked up a plastic shopping bag on the ground. As she continued her walk home, she picked up litter along her route. By time she arrived home, the bag was full.
Reedy would like to invite other Bowling Green residents to join her in a “Be Green” trash pickup on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“I see a mess here in town, and it needs to be picked up,” she said.
Those people wanting to help can meet in Ridge Park, where Reedy will have supplies collected for the community cleanup. Businesses have donated trash bags, buckets and rubber gloves. The city is providing neon safety vests for volunteers, and has offered to have two dumpsters set up in the park.
“With Earth Day right around the corner, I think it would be a cool way to get the community together,” Reedy said. “This town needs a little TLC.”
The pickup will be held regardless of the weather, she said.
“We’re still going for it,” even if it’s raining.
Reedy is not someone who can walk past a discarded fast food bag or beer can.
“There’s an ancient proverb that says we don’t inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children,” she said.
“I’ve loved the planet my whole life,” Reedy said. “My childhood best friend used to call me ‘Nature Girl.’”
Reedy said she is sometimes encouraged by the efforts of others to not trash the environment. She recently saw a cardboard box in the middle of a Bowling Green street, and was ready to retrieve it when she saw a motorist stop to pick up the box.
“It would be cooler if people just stopped littering,” but at least some citizens are trying to pick up, she said.
Reedy supports potential plans for a single-use plastic bag ban or tax in Bowling Green.
“They definitely impact the environment. They get in our waterways,” she said of the bags.
“Go for it,” she said of possible city legislation. The plastic shopping bags weren’t invented until the 1960s, she said. “We survived without them then.”
Reedy will welcome any amount of help citizens can offer – they don’t have to pick up trash the entire five-hour period on Saturday.
“If you want to go out and fill one bag, that’s fine,” she said.
But she doesn’t want anyone bringing their own trash to deposit in the dumpsters.
“This is strictly for trash, no home garbage,” she said.
Reedy is hoping that some BGSU students will see the “Be Green” event as a way to earn service hours. People planning to help are asked to RSVP on the Facebook page for Be Green 4/20/19 Trash Cleanup.
