I have recently gotten involved in the local stream cleanup team and am looking for a better trash pickup tool.
Right now I have a wooden broom handle that I pounded a 3″ 16d nail into the end which I cut the head off of, sharpened and made some notches in sides like barbs, I screwed a large hook into the other end. I use it to stab cans and other small stuff on banks and on the bottom. This works ok on light stuff but sucks on water filled beer cans, bottles and styrofoam. The 5′ pole is also a little clumsy to carry in my canoe. A lot of the other people have this setup also.
So I am looking for ideas for a better design. Has anybody seen anything better? All ideas are welcome.
I am thinking of an old AL paint pole with changeable screw on ends, or maybe a small pike.
-Day
Replies
What was thought of when the title appeared was..
backhoe with a thumb!
That sounds like it would be perfect.Now, if only I could get one on a canoe or 14' john boat, pull a 6" to 12" draft, and minimally disturb the fragile ecosystem surrounding said trash being removed.... Oh wait, maybe you meant that I should use one when I chase down the idiots that decide a river is good place to put trash. I could really bash some heads with it. If you have an extra one sitting around I think maybe you should ship it to me. I could use to experiment with it for a couple of years... I promise I would give it back when done with only "light" use.No, really I have worked on steam restoration in urban areas before and we used a backhoe and a winch to pull out sunken cars, boats, tractor tires, porta-johns, RR ties and any number of other large objects.
Edited 6/7/2007 11:20 am ET by restorationday
dredging vaccum...
small frog gig to attach to that painter's pole...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
I had not even thought about a frog gig pole for some reason. I think I might still have a few in a closet at my lake house. I haven't been gigging since I was a little kid when my granddad used to take me out.Thanks
day
you may have to dull the barbs a bit...
be carefull how close ya get to Canada with that...
you'll make some folks up there nervous...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Only the Frenchies.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
that now include Dino???Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
You might want to visit the local purveyor of goods to the handicapped. There are all sorts of reachers/grabbers available -- some directly usable and some that may give you some ideas.
I have recently gotten involved in the local stream cleanup team
Well done, I've been meaning to do some stuff like that myself, there's a public open area with streams and wooded area near here that's spoiled with the trash dropped by anti-social ****s.
John
I have done this sort of thing off and on since I was in BSA.
Here in MO we have a lot of rivers that are used as recreational float streams by all manner of people. They are patrolled by MoDC rangers and tickets are given out a lot for littering but there is still quite a bit that gets left behind by people that don't have the same respect for the environment that I have learned.
I enjoy a beer or 12 sometimes on a slow float as much as most but really how hard is it to put your empty in the trash bag in your boat that all floaters are required to carry.
I wonder if you could make sort of a small rake - Like drive 3 nails in at an angle, and bend them over about 120°.
There's a guy 'round here that makes a home-made gadget that's pretty ingeneous. He has them for sale at several local hardware stores, farm supply places, etc. Let's see if I can describe it;
PVC pipe "handle", maybe 40 inches long, the bottom "trash sticker" is a small plywood disc, with four or five 10d nails driven through, pointy side down, of course. Larger hole in the center. Matching disc, below, has five small holes, drilled so that the nails pass freely through the second disc. Top disc, with the nails, is mounted solid to the PVC, flange or whatever. The second disc, with the holes, is mounted to a plunger which passes up the handle.
When you stick a piece of trash, you push on the slide plunger, which runs down the center of the handle to the bottom disc. Bottom disc pushes the trash off of the nails. Move on to the next piece.
Knob of some sort on the top end of the plunger rod, to keep it from sliding out the bottom.
Wish I had a pic.
Greg
Edited 6/6/2007 3:27 pm ET by GregGibson
The best tool would be to catch one of the polluters, hold the person by the ankles and have them pick up the mess. If you want to be nice, give them a snorkel.
Google "trash grabber". Lots of hits.
I've got a "grabbing" tool at work for picking up trash that I picked up at our local janitorial/cleaning supply house. You can get the same thing at any ACE hardware type place but those will brake on you. It's a 3-4' pole with a squeeze trigger that opens and closes two claw like fingers on the other end. The cheaper versions have what look like 1" suction cups on the tips of the claw fingers 10-15$. The one I have the claw tips look more like the head of an adjustable wrench. This one was around $30, but it hasn't broken and you can actually pick up anything from a dime flat on the floor to a brick. A cheaper alternative might be a pooper scooper from the pet store.
I like to clean up trash when I walk my dogs. I have been tempted to buy the pickup tool they have at HD. Unfortunately, the want $20, which I think is outrageous. I looked at the design, and decided I could probably make my own. I haven't found the time yet, but consider it doable. I think for your application, you could also make your own, using a long Al pole to get down into the water.
The fingers on the end could be cut out of Al stock from the home center, using rivets to connect them to a central bracket. A small spring would have to be used to open the fingers when you let go of the handle. The handle itself might be a little tricky. Looking at the one HD sells could give you some ideas.
Just cast your favorite lure into the water.
Always snags some garbage don't it?
[email protected]
I was, still do occasionally, picking up trash along the road near a neighboring wildlife refuge and I kept finding paper bags filled with $200 to $400 worth of scratch off lotto tickets inside. I would pick an area clean and within a week or two, six or seven "new" paper bags would replace the ones I'd just picked up. Decided to "stake out" the road way and catch the bast**d actively throwing trash out. After three days, caught him with binoculars tossing his crap through the passenger window of his pick up after eating lunch in the refuge parking lot. He would cross over a small bridge and regularly toss his empty lunch bag into the stream below and drive off. The ranger and I are on a talking basis so I let him know what's up and he tells me he's found several bags himself with lotto tickets inside. The following Monday afternoon, we're both hunkered down hiding in bushes next to the the bridge waiting for the trash man to come by. Low and behold, doofuss drives right past us and tosses his bag into the creek again and we now have him on video tape. Sean and I go over to the creek, pull his garbage from the steam below and find another bag of fast food wrappers and several scratch off lotto tickets inside. The next day at around lunch, the same red Dodge is sitting in the parking lot and guy is inside eating his lunch. Sean, now dressed in uniform and badge, and I in the passenger seat pull up behind him and Sean turns on the overhead red lights and blinkers. I stay seated in the patrol car as Sean walks up on the driver's side door, the guy is so busy scratching off lotto tickets he doesn't even notice that Sean is standing right beside him, watching him through the open window. Can you say, " Three hundred seventy dollar citation and background check?" As an added bonus, it turns out his license is expired too... YEA!
Bravo, score one for the good guys.
I never seem to get trash on my hooks just fish. Tree bass, rock fish, weed shad, stick crappie, Evinrude prop karp... you know those fish, not very good to fry up at the end of the day.
Pitch fork. Whenever I use mine, something other than what I want it to fork, winds up staying stuck until I manually grab it off the tines.
"you are dead a lot longer than you are alive"
Noah Aaron MacKenzie, 1990.
Yeah, a fish spear or frog gig might work well too, though you'd probably want to grind down the barbs.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I think a clam rake would be good for what you describe. You can get one in any well equipped hardware store around here. (Of course "here" is Rhode island and we go clamming regularly . . . at least I do. It's like a small basket with tines coming off of the front edge at the end of a 5 or 6 foot pole.
Yeah, all the hardware stores around here have whole sections devoted to clam rakes. ;)
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I googled clam rakes and a small one might actually work. Only problem is if I went asking at a sporting goods or hardware store around here for a clam rake I would get looks like I get when I go to Lowes and ask for MDO.I might think about making one or ordering one off the internet.
As a former janitor and maintenance person, what you want is known as the "EZ Reacher". This is the cat's meow and Cat, the cat-human, agrees with this.
It's basically a retangular aluminum tube with a handle on one end and two rubber suction cups on the other. Squeeze the handle and you can pick up anything from a postage stamp to a beer bottle. It is so fun to use, you look forward to trashy areas.
~Peter
Summer is the season of flies, fleas and mosquitos.
After looking thinking about all the suggestions I think I might have something.
I have in the past tried a 'grabber' (I have one for site pickup) and it did not work very well. A hard surface such as a can or bottle that has been sitting at the bottom of a stream or in a backwater for a couple months is very slippery from algae growth and the current works against you as well, you really have to get a hold on things sometimes. The grabbers never had enough pressure to pull something up. I might take a grabber a put two small cups with some roofing nails through the edges and have a kind of big venus fly trap. I think I might also take an old paint pole and an old paint roller handle and remove the roller part and have a giant hook. I am going to attempt to make a small basket like a clam digger but cylindrical out of chicken wire with a threaded socket. Also I'll make a frog gig that can be screwed onto the paint pole.If this works, I have a feeling I am going to be hit up for a couple of these outfits by the other people in the team.Thanks all
Day