Kick Butt Columbus

On the 29^th of March Keep Columbus Beautiful held their Kick Butt Columbus clean up event. Over 712 bags of trash and litter, 133 bags of recyclables and over 52,934 cigarette butts were picked up by the volunteers. The day of the event was very cold, rainy, and windy but 463 volunteers came out to give their time and energy to collect waste from the ramps of Columbus’ major highways and interchanges. My boyfriend’s sister and I went to the event early to help with set up. After enjoying the free breakfast, coffee, and warm up exercises we joined up with Team 29, mostly made up of some wonderful people from Boehriger Ingelhelm Roxane Labs. Our team collected trash on both sides of the 315 Long St Dublin Rd exit.

Trash collecting is an important part of Kick Butt Columbus but the event is driven by the concept that those who smoke should not throw their butts in anything but a cigarette receptacle. The butts are given to CBL Recycle where they are turned into ashtrays, cigarette recycling receptacles, and other hand crafted items. According to CBL’s website Americans throw away 150 million pounds of cigarette litter every year, making cigarettes America’s number one most littered item. CBL’s goal is to lower that rate by turning the butts into widely useable items, thus reducing our dependence on petroleum based products since most of the items are made from petroleum. Recycling the cigarette waste saves resources and reduces the number of cigarettes in our landfills. 

I was surprised about how much trash had been blanketed by this long winter. Columbus was buried under unmitigated snow for a few months. Yet, under all that whiteness garbage was waiting. Much of the trash we picked up was falling apart from the snow and rain but we still managed to gather trash from both sides of the on ramp. Besides the fact that litter is hazardous to animals, especially in the spring with the vulnerable new born and nesting animal population, these ramps are the first thing people see when they visit our city. I know from personal experience I’ve passed up an exit when looking for a restaurant, hotel, or attraction because the highway ramp looked unkempt or dangerous. I know it’s kind of silly to think of an area as dangerous or undesirable because of some trash but the buildup of waste shows a lack of affection the residents have for their community. Last month the residents of Columbus changed that perception by braving some really cold temperatures and freezing rain to clean up 158 ramps and 40 interchanges throughout the city.  

Even though I didn’t feel warm for hours after the event I would do the whole thing again. It was inspiring to see so many residents of Columbus from many different walks of life come out to this one event. People of all ages were helping out any way they could. One lady from my group, a total stranger, brought snacks and let us take turns warming up in her van. People honked and waved at us as we cleaned, hopefully taking a reminder from us not to litter. The Boat House opened up their restrooms to our group and extended their parking lot for our use.

Everyone I encountered did what he or she could and in the end the event was wildly successful because it takes a city to clean a city. It takes people who have pride in what they have to remind others to care for what is theirs.