My Brother's Keeper

I confess to having a dilemma. As long I’m healthy enough to pick up trash and can make time in my schedule, should I pick up garbage that animals have gotten into after a neighbor puts their can out for the weekly trash pick up? It’s on my roadside route that I’ve cleaned up once a month for years. And this neighbor has had an animal getting into his trash for the last few months. The overturned trash is picked up poorly by the owner and ignored by the nearest neighbors.

Am I the neighborhood cleanliness fanatic? To quote Popeye: “I am what I am, and that’s all that I am”. I will clean it up. I am my brother’s keeper.

This problem may be solved with a solution I’m trying.  I heard about someone who had animals in their trash putting black pepper in a garbage can and it stopped critters from coming back. (They get sick and remember to avoid that can in the future.) I thought about going by and putting pepper in early on trash pickup day. Luckily, I caught the neighbor with his garage door open. I approached him and, after we had talked for a few minutes, got to the topic of his overturned trash can. He knows a neighbor’s dog is getting into it but failed to get any help - despite talking to the neighbor then calling the Sheriff’s department after the dog kept getting in his trash. I suggested putting black pepper in his trash. He said he would try it!

Hopefully, the problem will be solved with pepper....I’ve found that nothing in life runs smoothly, even something as routine as picking up trash.