If the trash pirate of Gainesville sees someone flinging a blue surgical face mask near a gutter on 16th Avenue, he will curse at him or her.
Anyone leaving in the morning and returning in the evening near his home may get a wave from 63-year-old Larry Thompson in his signature look — an orange safety vest, light clothing, gloves, a mask and what he calls his trash pirate hat — as he picks up trash.
“I get some good cussing done when I’m picking up trash,” Thompson said. “I get all my tensions out by cussing at every person that I think threw that stuff out on the ground.”
The "trash pirate," Larry Thompson, at work.
Though he said he has seen less masks littered near his home at Gateway Park Apartment Complex, located at Northwest Ninth Street, he said he’s still seeing the nationwide problem on his streets. Environmentalists, like Thompson, have taken matters into their own hands.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a statement in May asking Americans to discard disposable masks and other personal protective equipment in trash cans. However, littered masks haven't been a huge issue for the county’s Solid Waste & Resource Recovery office, said Interim Director Gus Olmos.
Keep Alachua County Beautiful, a voluntary trash pickup group, is finding discarded masks before the county receives any complaints, Olmos said.
“Littering in general is bad, regardless of what it is,” he said. “This makes it even worse because there is the potential of transmitting a disease.”
Alachua County ordered businesses to put up signs starting July 1 to notify customers that they must wear a mask. Since then, littering masks has been an issue outside grocery and drugstores like the CVS on North Main Street because customers improperly discard them after shopping, Keep Alachua County Beautiful executive director Gina Hawkins said.
While the amount of littered masks in the county has improved since May, about 80 volunteers who pick up trash every week still find a few masks a week near roads and businesses, Hawkins said.
“People seem to have been finding the trash cans more often,” she said. “Except in the heavy retail areas.”
The solid waste department, responsible for county recycling, also has a reporting system where citizens can report concerns like littering, Olmos said. The system hasn’t received any mask littering complaints as of Sept. 2.
Littering at a business isn’t under the department’s jurisdiction, he said. He passes complaints to the business owner to clean up unless KACB does voluntarily.
The chances of issuing a citation for someone who litters a mask are highly unlikely, he added. The department needs to physically witness a littering violation taking place to issue a citation.
While Hawkins and Olmos haven’t caught anyone in the act of littering a mask, a few volunteers have.
Thompson, who has been an environmentalist since he was 8 years old, said he has seen people litter disposable face masks when picking up trash near his neighborhood.
“It makes me furious,” he said. “It’s stupid behavior. I get angry because it’s totally irresponsible. It’s germs. What if some little kid walks by? Or a dog?”
The organization provides supplies like tongs, gloves, trash, recycling bags and an orange safety vest, to volunteers like Thompson, Hawkins said. The supplies allow for contactless pickup.
In the past two months, Kimberly Browne, a 52-year-old Gainesville resident, said she has seen at least 24 littered masks and gloves by her house and walking around Gainesville.
Browne, who found two masks by Gale Lemerand Drive Sunday morning, said she has witnessed someone driving in front of her toss a used mask out their window.
“I can’t imagine any world where it’s OK to litter anything,” Browne said. “But something that might be contaminated? Who’s going to pick it up?”
Wearing plain old shorts, a T-shirt and tennis shoes, she said she has picked up litter for 20 years. If she doesn’t have gloves, she’ll clean up other trash, like cups, with littered plastic bags instead.
“I wish people would take their used masks and gloves to trash at home,” Browne said, adding that when adults litter, they aren’t teaching the younger generation responsibility and respect.
To Hawkins, trash cans are only a few steps away.
“There’s no rocket science to it,” she said. “We’re asking everyone to do their part.”
County residents who notice littered masks or need full trash cans emptied should contact the county at 352-374-5213.
Asta Hemenway is a third-year senior majoring in Journalism. Born in Tallahassee, she grew up Senegalese American. When she’s not writing or doing school, she loves watching Netflix and Tiktok in her spare time.
