As she sorts through her two full garbage bags of recycling and trash on May 1, York neighborhood Recycling and Trash Society, also known as R.A.T.S., President Kirsti Charlton finds a metal license plate holder and the plastic shell to a headlight, both without a scratch on them.

“How does someone not notice when these things fall off their car?” said says with a laugh.

Charlton and three other R.A.T.S. members filled a total of 10 bags of trash and recycling with a variety of things, ranging from small car parts to empty beer bottles, which they dispose of at the city garbage cans.

“Think what it would look like if we didn’t [pick up trash],” Charlton said. “I probably wouldn’t have noticed much before [R.A.T.S. was started], and then once you start picking it up, it looked so much better.”

The day began in front of Nelson’s Market at 8:45 a.m., where the group decided what streets they would clean up that day. This changes every time the group meets, depending on which streets they feel need to most trash removed.

On this day, the group walked down streets including Humboldt and Whatcom, where they divided trash from recycle in separate bags as they walked.

Serving as a community builder

Other York residents, including Steve and Susan, joined Charlton in cleaning up the neighborhood. Both Steve and Susan live at the City Gate apartments in the neighborhood, which serves as a halfway house for recovering drug and alcohol abusers.

“I like [picking up trash] because it gets me out of the house,” Steve said.
Susan agreed, saying she likes it so much that even when her bag is full, she can’t stop picking up the trash. “It’s just so hard [to stop] after a while, because you’re in this mindset of picking up everything you see,” she said.

R.A.T.S. typically has about five members attending each week, which include both York residents and non-York residents. Charlton said she has even had entire families join, who bring their elementary school-aged children.

“It’s a good community builder,” Charlton said. “It offers an opportunity for stewardship and it builds respect for our neighbors.”

Charlton also added that another benefit of helping R.A.T.S. is that it isn’t time consuming. Unlike other York association groups, like Transition York, which can take up to several hours to complete, picking up trash with R.A.T.S. only lasts until your garbage bags are full—this usually takes less than an hour.

“It really seems like there is less trash, whether it’s us, or it’s just the neighborhood doing their part,” Charlton said.

How to join R.A.T.S.

A reminder sheet explaining the next meeting is always posted in the front window of Nelson’s Market. Charlton also sends reminder e-mails to York residents before each meeting.

“It’s like the saying,” Charlton said, “you try to leave it better than when you came.”

R.A.T.S meets every first and third Saturday of the month. The next meeting will be held at 8:45 a.m. on May 15 outside of Nelson’s Market. Anyone is welcome to join, rain or shine.