Janie Black hates litter. For years she has been picking up litter from the sides of roads. Recently, she has moved to Beachwood Road in Walterboro and continued her endeavors.
“I can’t stand bottles and cans everywhere,” said Black. “It’s a shame to see litter and paper all over the sides of the road. People shouldn’t litter. It is embarrassing when you ask friends to come over and there is trash everywhere.”
Black’s small white house is pristine, with a picket fence, bench with cushions, and lawn décor. But she wants to spread that beauty throughout her neighborhood.
“I am 73 years old, and I care about my neighborhood. I walk outside on sunny, warm days, and if I see litter, I pick it up. I put it into piles for the county to come pick up. Once I was picking up trash and a man came out of his home, yelling at me. He thought I was messing up his yard. When he realized I was there actually picking up trash, he was happy and thanked me,” Black said.
Black cleans the roadside from her house to the local church. Her trash piles have grown so tall at times that the county workers gave her orange litter bags for her piles. But a lot of the bottles she finds are broken, so she uses a garden rake to rake the glass into piles, laying an orange bag on top. “I am scared of getting cut, so I leave it up to the county workers who have gloves to pick up the glass,” said Black.
Black already has multiple piles of trash she has picked up in the last few weeks piled up and waiting for removal.
“I’ve been doing this — cleaning up litter — all my life,” said Black. “I just care about my neighborhood. Shouldn’t everyone?”
