Celebrate 'One Man's Trash' on Earth Day

CANDY WRAPPERS, pregnancy tests, Halloween decorations and more beer cans than you can imagine - Bradley Maule has collected it all over the course of a year during his weekly hikes through Wissahickon Valley Park.

And now, he's ready to display his findings.

All 3,768 of them.

Maule's "One Man's Trash" project launched in January 2014 in hopes of bringing attention to litter in Wissahickon Valley Park. The PhillySkyline.com founder and Hidden City co-editor started the project because he was appalled by the amount of trash he saw in the Northwest Philly arm of Fairmount Park along Wissahickon Creek.

Armed with a trash grabber and plastic bags, he collected and stored the trash in a shed lent by the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, and recorded what he gathered in weekly reports on PhillySkyline.com.

Maule will display his findings, both data and the physical trash, at a reception at Fairmount Water Works today - Earth Day 2015. Light refreshments will be provided by Weavers Way, along with beer from Victory Brewing. Maule, Friends of Wissahickon executive director Maura McCarthy and Streets Department commissioner Dave Perry will speak.

"The Fairmount Water Works was the inspiration for Fairmount Park," Karen Young, director of Fairmount Water Works, said in a press release. "Philadelphia's historic watering committee and PWD knew they needed open, undeveloped land to protect the Schuylkill River, the city's water supply. We hope that 'One Man's Trash' will help everyone understand the connection between our parks, our drinking water and the history of the City."

There will be a special display on Devil's Pool, a popular (and sometimes fatal) swimming spot where Cresheim Creek flows into the Wissahickon.

"Devil's Pool is the Wissahickon at its very best and its very worst - it's at once a spectacular specimen of Wissahickon schist geology punctuated by a stone aqueduct dating to the City Beautiful 1890s and a party spot whose litter seems to get worse by the year," Maule wrote on the Hidden City website.

Maule's last hike for the project was on Dec. 31.

"For that one, I did what I call my 'local loop,' " Maule said. "It's the one that I do the most frequently, and I think was the one that I did on the very first hike, too."

Maule described the event as a "ceremonious" way to wrap up "One Man's Trash." Although his recorded hikes are over, Maule said that he still gets on the trail as much as he can.

"The Wissahickon is the main reason I live in Mount Airy," Maule said, adding that he plans on taking his trash grabber out again occasionally, too.

While he collected nearly 4,000 pieces of trash, he said that that number doesn't count the items he kept separate record of but didn't store, for hygienic reasons, like tissues, condoms and bags of dog droppings.

He's had time to reflect on his project, but Maule said that he still isn't sure what to make of all that garbage.

"I've tried to think of what my big takeaway from this has been and what I've learned," Maule said. "Despite the fact that I have been quantifying all of this trash all year long, it's kind of hard to quantify my own takeaway, which is sort of strange."

He said that a big portion of what he collected was plastic, which Maule considers particularly depressing because of its inability to fully decompose.

So, what's next for him? More environmental activism seems to be in his future.

"I wouldn't say that I have any project quite this size lined up, but this project has given me some ideas for some things that I'd like to advocate for - parks in general, but for the Wissahickon in particular," he said.