By Stephanie Swogetinsky
It never fails when driving down any given road in any of the municipalities or county areas surrounding them. At some point, there is the noticeable eyesore of trash that was carelessly discarded to litter the area.
In Shubuta, Nora Nored noticed and started acting. The first week, Nored and her husband filled 33 large black trash bags. Three months later, Nored found that not only does cleaning up the trash make the community look better, but there’s money to be made as well.
“We’ve been picking up litter on the road for as it is needed,” explained Nored. “While we were picking up litter, I would also pick up loose change that I would find and put it in a coffee can at the house when I got home. I decided to roll the coins to see how much I found. So far, I have collected $73.75.”
Nored explained that she uses a grabber to pick up litter on the road not to mess up her
hands.
“You don’t know that the money is there until you pick up the litter around it, and then it looks good where you picked up the litter, too. I have a grabber I use to pick the litter up so that I don’t touch it with my hands,” Nored explained. “I had picked up one wadded up paper towel and heard it make a noise when I put it in the litter bucket. I looked and found two-dollar bills and 75 cents wadded up in a tissue.”
Along with there being the possibility of finding money while picking up litter, some litter itself, such as aluminum cans, can be collected and traded for money in some places.
Nored hopes to inspire others in the community to take the time to pick up trash on roadways. Not only does it help keep the cities and county looking nice, it also is a paying job in more ways than one.
