Spokane County, WA. – Bex Nelson never knows what she’s going to find when she puts on her reflective safety vest and gloves, grabs her trash picker, and starts picking up garbage around the latest Spokane County neighborhood she’s chosen to clean up.
“I think it’s weird how much Fireball (whisky) empty containers we find…at least 20,30 every single time,” Bex said.
She organizes almost weekly clean-ups around town through the ‘Spokane County Clean Up’ group on social media.
“It’s needed everywhere,” Bex said. “I just feel like there’s better morale if there’s not trash everywhere.” Bex said she’s had a passion for removing litter since she was a young child. “When I was a child, I did a lot of backpacking and hiking with my parents, and I would just always pick up trash when I saw it,” Bex said. “I consider the outdoors to be my third space, so when I see trash and it makes it less beautiful for me, I just pick it up.” Her efforts and groups have gained hundreds of followers over the past few months and inspired others to spend some of their free time during the weekend helping Bex pick up trash. Most recently, the group helped fill dozens of trash bags with litter from the Edwidge Woldson Park area. “It was near 30 (trash bags)..but we got a scale so we’re doing pounds now and I think it was 153 pounds of trash,” Bex said. “It was fun.” Bex posts photos and the results, such as those pounds of trash removed, on her clean up pages, and encourages other participants to share their photos from the effort too. “We utilize the Spokane County Team Up to Clean Up program, so they have the Gieger work crew come clean up all the (trash) bags when we’re done, so we don’t have to worry about that,” Bex said. The next scheduled clean up crew is this Saturday, April 6th starting at 9 a.m. in the Chief Garry Park Neighborhood. She encourages participants who are able to trek up the hills along the Spokane River to bring clothes and wear cleaning attire, and to park along East South Riverton Avenue between the crossroads of Cook Street and Altamont. “Going somewhere that’s disgusting and then when you leave it’s pretty nice,” Bex said.
