Over the past dozen or so outings to collect trash, I’ve established a few internal rules that govern what I do.

For example, are bird feathers trash? Should something be left on the ground because someone might try to find it later? My internal rules say the answer to both questions is no.

A few of my rules

• If it’s a naturally occurring part of nature, it’s not trash. Leaves, mushrooms, bird feathers and the like stay on the ground.
• If it’s on the sidewalk, the swale or the street, it’s definitely fair game. If it’s on the front lawn of a person’s house, it’s definitely trash, and I can reach it with my grappler, I’ll take it. If I have to reach through a fence, I’m probably not going to grab it, though.
• Anything that’s not a naturally occurring part of nature is trash. Plastic, discarded ketchup containers, filters from cigars, straws, pens, lighters, aluminum cans, paper napkins — they’re all going in my bucket.
• If I can’t easily kick it loose with my shoe, there it stays. I’m not making myself crazy over this. Let’s not even talk about what appeared to be a melted blob of crayon on the street. I’ve just been watching it wear away over the weeks.
• I try to make eye contact with and say hello to the people I pass on my block. I realize that, best case, I look like a weirdo doing this. I guess I’m hoping that small connection will set them at ease.
• Special case: After the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup, I found confetti at various points on my block. I started to pick it up, but that was just nonsense. Too much. Too fragile. And I figured it would disintegrate into nothing at the first rainfall. Sorry, Mother Nature.

Do I worry?

Do I worry that I’ll pick up something that someone will later try to find?

Yes.

Does that stop me from picking it up and hauling it back to the dumpster in the alley behind my house?

No.