Every day, the average American throws away about 4.5 pounds of trash, which doesn’t sound like much but adds up quickly. We throw away up to 56 tons of trash a year. That’s 56 killer whales worth. Produced by one person. If the garbage trucks that hold that trash were lined up end to end, it would reach halfway to the moon.

About 1/3 of that is packaging, and Americans throw away enough aluminum cans every year to rebuild the US’s commercial aircraft fleet every three months. It boggles the mind.

If we had to live in what we throw away and what we produce, we’d be singing a different tune. But we have the luxury of a sanitation system that takes much of our trash out of our sight. And what’s out of sight usually goes out of mind. But that trash doesn’t disappear just because we don’t see it anymore, or because it’s in someone else’s yard and not ours.

This week, as another Earth Day comes and goes, let’s take a look at the little things we do and little ways we can leave this beautiful county and this land in better shape for our children.

Volunteers will be hitting the streets on Saturday morning, in Rockdale and across the country, doing the thankless job of keeping our roadways and greenways clean and free of trash in the Great American Cleanup.

If you want to help out, the clean up will begin at 7:30 a.m. the Wheeler Park pavilion on Parker Road and run until about noon. Supplies and trash bags will be provided. All that is needed is the manpower and a can-do spirit.

Rockdale is a beautiful county. Let’s keep it that way.