- May 4, 2024
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Leslie and Herb Klug, and the trash buggy. Photo by Jacque Estes
Herb Klug shows off all of the features of his trash buggy, a broom and dustbin, a grabber and pick-up tool, bins, his water, bug spray and gloves, all in a redesigned baby stroller. Photo by Jacque Estes
A discarded swifter was re-purposed into a tool to pick up paper. Photo by Jacque Estes
Herb Klug's doctor told to “get off his butt and start walking.” It's something Klug says he likes, “less than he likes eating dry straw” – his words.
“I contemplated it,” Klug said.
Klug couldn't convince himself to walk, for the sake of walking – even if it was for his health. One day a casual glance out the car window gave him a purpose to walk.
“One day I was leaving the neighborhood to go to the store, and noticed bottles, napkins, and cups along the side of the road,” Klug said. “And the light went off – I could pick up trash while I walked.”
He started carrying one, bright yellow, plastic, bucket, that his cat's litter comes in, and walked about eight-tenths of a mile, round trip, the first day. He returned home with a full bucket of trash. As his daily trips took him further around the neighborhood, he added more buckets. Now he walks at least four miles a day – five when there's a lot of trash.
Most of the stuff he picks up goes into the recycling bin, and trash. A discarded stroller and broken swifter, left out for the trash, were re-purposed into a makeshift “trash buggy” and a nail-ended stick. Recently, he found one item that made him believe he has seen it all – a rubber rooster.
He's picked up what he calls, 'head nodding acquaintances' along with the trash. It is not unusual for people to roll down their car windows, as he picks up the hundreds of cigarettes at the stop light at Belle Terre and Whiteview parkways, and thank him. Some have even suggested that more people should do the same thing. He resists the urge to say, the 'more people' could be them.
"I look at them and say, 'that would be nice,'” he said.
A second man in the neighborhood, who he knows as Mark, has begun picking up trash on couple of the streets Klug used to walk.
His wife Leslie Klug is amused by his walking clothes and buggy, though she supports his mission.
“I would not talk to him if I saw him,” she laughed. “He wears this silly Henry Blake hat from M.A.S.H. I would think he was strange, and I would cross the street.”
A former technical writer for Xerox, Klug has a professional looking notebook full of photos of his finds, and a map of where he goes. Currently he walks between Pine Grove, Providence and Belle Terre Parkway. He has no plans to expand this route.
The best and most valuable item he found was a red Fitbit, one exactly like the Fitbit his wife gave him this year for Father's Day.
“The battery was still working,” he said. “I am on Palm Coast Swip Swap so I thought I would see if I could find the owner.”
When he got home to check how far he had walked that day, the rubber case his own Fitbit had been in, was empty. The Fitbit he found, was his.
