We all are aware of the amount of trash that is generated worldwide. Little do we humans do to keep our vicinity clean. But Daniel Toben of North Carolina takes earnest effort to gather litter. For 10 long years, he has collected 7000 sacks of garbage. He still embarks on his cleaning journey!
In 2009, Daniel, currently 31 initiated to accumulate litter. He was a student at North Carolina State University then. He saw a brook containing plastic bottles close to his dorm. He attempted to purge garbage in the brook and has been cleaning since then. He started to trace his attempts 2 years ago. He has collected 7K sacks of litter in the past 2 years.
Daniel is a manager in a sandwich business located in Chapel Hill. It is a full-time job and still, he spares time for this noble act. He talked about how he began to accumulate litter. He started gathering litter as a student. He wanted to cast an influence on humans by doing something good and out of the ordinary. He decided to add charm to nature by cleaning it. Others joined him with time.
Daniel has devised novel methods to arrange his tidy-outs. He installed Fulcrum: an app that traces each area cleaned by Daniel and participants. The location and sacks of litter are pursued and images are clicked to influence people. He got recognition when he uploaded his pics on Facebook in which he was seen cleaning the litter. In due course, he structured a page. The page’s name is ‘Mission to beautify our communities’. Sufficient fund was acquired which enabled Daniel to buy a lorry that aided to accumulate enormous debris.
In addition to gathering litter, he spotted illegal oil dumping sites, recovered hundreds of gallons of toxic chemicals including oil, antifreeze, paints, cement epoxies, pesticides, industrial chemicals, and more. Also, Daniel was able to connect some former pets to their possessors.
Moreover, he used social media to portray his work and get more people intrigued into this. On Facebook, he set up an official page called ‘The Earth Stewards’ and also has an account on TikTok. On TikTok, he had whopping 225K followers and till now has got imposing 1.5 Million likes.
Due to the continuing pandemic, Daniel’s work hours as a manager ‘reduced drastically’. Therefore, he has diverted his energies towards working for the nature. He exclaimed that he devotes 4-8 hours each day for the same. He works in a remote area and hence isn’t timid of the coronavirus. Also, he is ecstatic that his buddies feel sanguine while cleaning and also sue away their loneliness. He takes joy in his achievement. Daniel utters that when the beach/path or any other area is clean it is inevitably healthy.
Daniel aims to be an epitome to all in the vicinity. He desires to build a Public Service Announcement. It will present distinguished personalities to motivate all state inhabitants to assist in maintaining a clean environment. By then, he is cheering people to swab the debris hitherto present.
He vocalized that any human can wear gloves, take litter sacks and initiate cleaning. It’s amusing to do as plastic does not decompose for 500 years. So any human cleaning it would clean something that would have lasted so long. Garbage disturbs the ecosystem and hampers environmental well-being.
Thus, we should leave no stone unturned to have a shielded and clean environment!
