By Emma Moneuse
Steve Jewett and his friend Bill Willoughby were hiking partners when they began picking up trash on the trails. They had gotten fed up with finding litter along their hiking routes and decided they would turn their walks into a chance to #UNLITTER the outdoors. Jewett even started bringing barbeque tongs with him to pick up waste when the two discovered they weren’t only doing good, but having fun too. That’s when the simple act turned into a big idea, they wanted to start a nationwide movement.
In 2013 Clean Trails was born, a non-profit dedicated to changing behaviors and inspiring people to keep trails in their natural state: trash-free. From there, the organization started National CleanUp Day in 2017, a focus day to help educate the public on the facts about litter and encourage individuals to do their part. For Jewett, action is the most important part of their mission, as he explains a lot of people are aware of the problem, but it’s something they can ignore. The goal of Clean Trails and National CleanUp Day is to take that awareness and turn it into a behavior. “If you have the right ethic, but you don’t take action, then your ethic is just a philosophy, not a way of living,” he says. “Clean Trails is a way to educate people to take action when they see the need for it.”
Most litter occurs by accident. A bottle cap falling out of a bag, a piece of a wrapper floating from a pocket, or a piece of a shoe… these are all things that are mostly unintentional. Although most people don’t intend on littering, it has been shown that litter begets more litter. “If there’s litter there, people will litter, even unintentionally,” says Jewett. “If there is no litter in a place, people are less likely to do it and will be more careful, or they will be more inclined to pick it up when they see it.” This fact inspired them to experiment with many different solutions, one being adopt a trail or adopting a space along the trail, called Adopt One Place.
Jewett explains that when people took ownership of a space, they took care of that area. “In the areas that people adopted there was a 99% reduction in trash and litter. They would go out and clean the space once a week or once a month and it would work,” he says. “The hard part is scaling it up, so that’s one of our goals. To come up with action items where people can personally make a difference.”
Through the creation of a worldwide network of Clean Trail stewards and local groups to encourage trail clean up, the organization has seen the motivation of tens of thousands of trail users to pick up trash. On September 21, 2024 hundreds of thousands will join in to grow the mission of Clean Trails for the annual National CleanUp Day, with the first in 2017 bringing more than 200,000 volunteers together to make a difference.
For Jewett, the goal of Clean Trails is simple, to have litter free tails everywhere. It is apparent that others want the same thing, as Jewett explains. “There hasn’t been a single time in all these years picking up trash that someone hasn’t passed me doing it and thanked me.” Everyone wants a clean trail. So next time you’re out on a hike, or even walking down a city path, pick up that piece of trash– it may just lead to something big.
All images courtesy of Clean Trails
If you'd like to find a clean up near you, head to their website.
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