Civic litter: Picking up trash in Athens brought me closer to my community

If only more of us could spend an hour or so a week volunteering and getting to know our communities — whether by coaching youth sports, working at a soup kitchen or food bank or picking up trash.

At a time when many Americans feel despair about our nation’s trajectory, each of us might consider what we can do to learn more about our neighbors.

It’s a good first step toward hope.

What are the stories behind these tossed objects?

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Taking garbage off trails and putting it into trash or recycling cans is gratifying. These materials can take dozens, even hundreds, of years to decompose. Some runners are chucking empty water bottles into the woods. Partiers leave liquor bottles and beer cans behind.

I often invent stories behind some of the more unusual stuff I find.

Take, for instance, the pair of children’s Nike sneakers tossed into a bramble of privet. Did a dad go hiking with his 4-year-old son, who then became tired and complained his feet hurt and couldn’t keep going? Maybe, to stop the whining, the dad took off his son’s shoes, tossed them and carried his child back to the car.

And what about that pumpkin pie in a tin, minus one slice of pie, lying on the ground in between a two-lane road and a trail in the woods?

Was a car passenger sampling pie to bring to a family dinner? She didn’t like the taste and threw the rest of the pie out the car window?

I’ve yet to concoct a story for the toilet bowl brush lodged about 15 feet into the woods from a trail.

But some items have a clear story behind them.

In tents, people are living without permanent housing

On so-called social trails off designated hiking trails, I have found tents, sweatshirts, food coolers and tarps. Like many communities across the United States, the number of homeless residents is rising every year in Athens-Clarke County, a phenomenon housing advocates attribute to a lack of affordable housing.

In January 2024, the annual federally mandated point-in-time count found 386 people experiencing homelessness, a 12% rise from 2023. The 2023 numbers were 20% higher than in 2022.

The 2025 survey counted 289 (25% down year-over-year); however, advocates say those statistics are an undercount because they don’t include people living in cars or on friends’ couches.

When I see a tent hidden in the woods, I let the folks at the county Leisure Services know. Local authorities put a sticker on the tent that tells its occupants to vacate within 72 hours. They also leave a list of local social services.

Through my volunteer work, I have learned that shelter spaces in the county often are full, which means folks scramble to find a safe place to sleep.

My quest to do a simple task as a volunteer to maintain and improve hiking trails has taken me away from screens and into my community. I am learning more than I expected to about my neighbors and the struggles they face.

I am just one person with a vest and backpack, a trash grabber and a garbage bag. In a parking lot shared by a local restaurant and a county park, a few weeks ago, I picked up a piece of paper from a Chinese fortune cookie that felt like encouragement.

“This week,” it read, “be mindful of your actions and their impact.”

Allison Salerno is an Athens-based freelance writer and audio producer whose work has appeared in the AJC and Atlanta magazine, among other places. Her audio news features, aired on WUGA in Athens, have earned her two Georgia AP awards and a Gabby from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters. She has also won two Ñ awards from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.