During Earth Week, thousands of people all across the country participated in litter clean-ups in their own neighborhoods and beyond. The volunteers undoubtedly picked up countless amounts of paper, plastic, cigarette butts, bottles, cans, cardboard and other commonly littered items. But among all of that trash, there certainly must have been some interesting finds, too. 

I chatted with some clean-up participants to find out about some of the weirdest items that they found. These conversations got me thinking about the stories behind the trash. Just how did these strange things get here, and what was the journey like along the way? 

First, there was an entire toilet found in the river. I imagine someone going through the trouble of removing the old toilet from the bathroom of their home, purchasing and installing a new one and then wondering, "Now what are we going to do with this old crapper?" We put it out on the curb in front of the house. After it sat there for a few weeks, we decided that not only was the refuse collection not going to take it, but neither were the neighborhood pickers who drove their trucks around at night looking for the discarded treasures of others. 

Well, what solutions could remain? We must wait until the cover of darkness. Then we will load the old commode up in the back of our vehicle and take it for a long drive out to the country. Once we get there, we will grab the old john by either side and give it the ol' heave-ho right over the edge of that hill. Once it's in the river maybe some critter can use it as a hide-out.  It's a win-win! 

Next, there were not one, not two, not three, but five old-school pull-tabs from beverage cans - the kind that are designed to come off completely and to be discarded. Personally, I don't ever remember seeing a can with this type of opening mechanism in my lifetime.  So I looked it up on the most reliable resource I know of, Wikipedia, and I learned these tabs were first developed in 1956. Turns out that people could ingest the tabs when they broke off and fell into the can.  So the tops were redesigned in 1975 to reduce both injuries and litter. Now maybe there are still some cans out there somewhere that use the old opening mechanism, but if not, imagine the five pull-tabs have been laying around for the past 35 years!

So how did they get here originally? Even 35 years ago, teenagers still tried to hide the fact that they were throwing back a few beers from their parents and from law enforcement. What better way to create plausible deniability than to chuck the evidence randomly onto the ground? "It's not my tab officer.  That thing was laying there when we got here." We started to sweat a little bit as we hoped the officer wouldn't peer behind the big rocks at the edge of the trees, where we had discarded the empty cans.

Hey, it could happen. We'd love to know what the weirdest thing that you or your friends ever found while participating in a litter clean-up, or just picking up trash on your own. Write to us an let us know...the weirder the better.  We will share the best ones on our Twitter page, too!