Earth Day reminder for Plastic. What Happens on Land doesn’t necessarily Stay on Land.

April 16, 2025
Larry Hurley
Inspiration
0 Comments

A Walk Around Behnke Nurseries

Most people dispose of their trash properly, and do their best to recycle. Other folks don’t. I used to walk the outer perimeter of the Behnke Nurseries property at Beltsville about once a month, and I would fill a trash bag full of trash and plastic bottles. Trash on the ground that doesn’t get picked up often goes down the sewers and eventually out to rivers and the ocean. If I see a plastic bottle or a run-over can in a parking lot when I am shopping, I toss it in the car and bring it home. Every litter bit helps, as they used to say.

Three photos: From May of 2014: shoreline of the Anacostia River. Alfred Millard and I were working at a park for the day as part of a DC Government project where folks from the Department of the Environment were planting perennials and shrubs purchased from Behnke’s. I took a break and saw that at least at that time, the Anacostia had a lot of plastic on the shore.

From June of 2019: an attractive mass of plastic debris at a spillway in the Tiber River, in Rome. Could have almost been an art display, and includes soccer balls in addition to the usual plastic bottles.

Where Does the Trash Go?

From the rivers to the sea: Photo taken on the eastern side of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, February, 2019. Due to prevailing winds from the east, the beaches on the western side of the island are pretty much trash-free. But the western side is open to the Atlantic, so all sorts of stuff washes up here at Marguerite Bay. I don’t know about currents, but I assume most of it comes from Africa or Europe. In addition to the bottles all sorts of larger items wash up, including netting, Styrofoam blocks, even the occasional hardhat. A volunteer cleanup day a couple of years ago resulted in many truckloads of debris removed.

Larry Hurley

Larry Hurley worked at Behnke Nurseries from 1984 until the business was composted in 2019, primarily with the perennial department in growing, buying and sales.

Before landing at Behnke’s, he worked as a technician in a tissue culture lab, a houseplant “expert” at a florist shop, and inventory controller at a wholesale nursery in Dallas. With this and that, ten years passed.

When his wife Carolyn accepted a position at Georgetown University, Larry was hired at Behnke’s for the perennial growing department and garden center at Behnke’s Largo location.

In 2021, Larry and Carolyn moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to family and further from traffic. After 37 years in a shaded yard in Maryland, he is happy to have a sunny lot where he can grow all sorts of new perennials, if only he can keep the rabbits at bay. He also enjoys cooking, traveling, and the snowblower.