Built-In Trash Cans

We were back on the Speed River on a bright October day, with the water low and clear over the gravel and the trees along the bank turning yellow. On this stretch, debris accumulates among the deadfall and exposed roots in the current, so that’s where we started.

It didn’t take long to find plastic and grocery bags, a boot, and big industrial tarps stained rust-brown by the river.

Reaching all the way into the tangles, under the water, usually turns up something much heavier, and today it was blankets and bed sheets, which weigh a surprising amount when they’re soaked. Further along the shoreline we found hub caps, a large rubber seal, and various flotsam and jetsam like a wallet with a card still in it. Our biggest find was two construction pylons, stacked one inside the other. The only good thing about pylons in the water is that they make a built-in trash can, so we packed them with the blankets, the bags and whatever else was left on that stretch, then waded them back to dry land.

We, of course, carted everything out on our bikes. A large metal bookcase and a lounge chair filled the cart for the first trip, and the second load was bigger: our two full pylons strapped across the cart, wheeled out of the forest and past the Welcome to Guelph sign. Between the two trips, it came to about 35 kg. The pylons washed into the river as plastic debris and came out as trash cans, which is the most useful either of them has been in a while.

See a quick video of our cleanup: