In August, a group of self-described “old ladies” fished out a toilet bowl from a pond in Massachusetts, U.S., and have gained local fame since then. The group is named Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (OLAUG), and so far, they’ve cleaned up 18 ponds, removing everything from tires and beer bottles to the bright blue toilet. To join the group, you must be a woman, able to swim half a mile in under 30 minutes and more than 64 years old, Susan Bauer, 84, the founder of OLAUG, told Mongabay by phone. She says older people bring a different perspective. “It’s the age of gratitude where you’ve lost enough so you’re really grateful for what’s left, whether that’s a husband or a child or it’s that you used to hear whip-poor-wills and now you don’t, you used to see spotted turtles and now you don’t,” Susan adds. Susan started OLAUG with a few friends during the pandemic. Today, her group is 25 strong and she has a waiting list of women who want to collect trash with her. She says the success of her group is that it’s fun. “We wade out of the water better, kinder, happier, more empowered women. Our product is joy. And it’s a hell of a lot easier to scale up joy than it is to scale up sacrifice.” “It’s the Zen of trash picking,” she adds. OLAUG works with one kayaker for every two swimmers. The kayaks haul most of the trash the swimmers collect.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post ‘Old ladies’ against underwater garbage and the Zen of trash picking first appeared on EnviroLink Network.