One man’s trash is another man’s sex toy

Children find rifles, chemicals and a “personal massager” during public waste collection effort

A record number of people took part in this year's annual week-long public trash pick up, which culiminated on Sunday. Nearly 100,000 people, including a 100-year-old woman, joined in the national spring cleaning effort, organised annually by national nature conservancy group Danmarks Naturfredningsforening. The volunteers collected trash from the country’s roadsides, forests and fields and other public areas. Over 70,000 of those registered to help clean up were children from schools and daycares.

This year's collection turned out to be no ordinary field trip for some of the kids. While pictures on the conservancy group’s Facebook page show happy people (and dogs) working to collect everyday trash, some unusual items turned up throughout Denmark’s bucolic countryside.

A group of school children from in Roskilde found two rifles – complete with telescopic sights and ammunition – that had been buried in a plastic sack. Two 3-year-old pre-schoolers from Copenhagen stumbled across four large bottles filled with a petrol-smelling liquid in the Vestskoven forest. The bottles were covered over with leaves and branches. Police are investigating.

Meanwhile a group of students from Sorø Husholdningsskole in southern Zealand got a giggle when they found a sex toy.

Entire motorcycles, mopeds, sofas, bottles, shoes and hundreds upon hundreds of fast food wrappers were fished out of the country’s fields and streams.

As usual, cigarette butts, aluminium cans and plastic bags filled with doggy droppings made up a big part of what was left behind. Last year, 190,000kg of rubbish was collected during the cleanup, along with some 215,000 cans. The conservancy group expects this year’s numbers to be even higher.

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