Saturday, October 23, 2010

Soccer Trash

This morning a fog so thick hung over the Potomac River as it passed through Algonkian Park that I couldn't tell where the water's edge met the boat ramp. Only a few feet from the edge, I could barely see the trees on the Maryland side of the river.
Welcome to a great autumn morning in VA!


A steaming cup of coffee in a recyclable paper cup and the sound of kids playing soccer on the pitch (field for you Americans) a couple of hundred yards away is the best way to start the day -- any day. But while I had a recycle trash can to dispose of my cup only a few feet from the bench that faced the river, the dozens of kids and parents on the soccer field didn't have a trash can, let alone one designated for recycling. And that seems to be the norm for most of the fields that our kids play soccer around Northern VA.


Kind of stupid really. Each team designates a snack family to bring the half-time and end of game snacks for the players. Usually these snacks either come wrapped in plastic or are hand sorted into mini Baggies. Drinks are foil pouches or little cardboard juice boxes, and all of them either are packed up by the parents and brought back home or forgotten on the sides of the field.


Why can't there be more trash cans on the fields? It's not as if Loudoun County doesn't know that the fields are being used each weekend by hundreds of thirsty and hungry kids. A few parents join me every week and collect our kids' trash after the game, and invariably we end up gathering another team's garbage, too. Do the parents of the other teams think that the county sends a clean-up crew around, or is that they just don't care.


Probably a little of both. But I know one thing: if there were more trash cans at the fields, even the careless parents would realize that the plastic wrapper on the Capri Sun straw needs to be thrown away.


So Parks and Rec... how about a few more trash cans.