So, every so often at my job, when I am in the parking structure, I will see a piece of trash on the way to the stairwell. If it's easy to grasp I sometimes pick it up because at the bottom of the stairwell there is a trash can. And I will deposit the item into the can. More oft than not though, I will kick it towards the stairwell trash can. Depending on the kick it will make various degrees of progress. If it's a water bottle for example.. it progresses in leaps and bounds. Or bounces. A wrapper or a flyer? Might take a long time.
The rule is simple. I cannot dally in my journey from my car to my office chair. So if I kick it and it does not go forward, I leave it behind for the next day's attempt.
Luckily for my scientific experimentation.. no one picks up any trash. EVER. So it's a nice little untouched microcosm of trash for me to toy with.
I just got finished with a Twix wrapper saga. It took me.. I wanna say.. 3 weeks. Finally I kicked it partway down the steps and when I went down the next flight I could reach across and pluck it from the step it had landed on and I put it in the trash.
Yes, with these baby steps I will have Earth cleaned up in about 45 trillion years, if we can stop any additional litter from happening ..starting right... now.
And, I sometimes experiment with decay. I left an apple with one bite out of it on a parking garage ledge a few years back and watched throughout the season to see how quickly it decayed. It took a LOOOOONG time and only after a bird started picking at it did it really make any drastic changes in state.
