LUZERNE, Pa. — After a few days of walking around his community of Luzerne and seeing the amount of trash along the streets, Walter Banicky thought something should be done.
"I was pretty horrified for what I saw on the streamside here and on the rail here and roads around on Union Street," explained Banicky. "I thought I'd take advantage and get my crew together because I have a Luzerne Blight Litter Cleanup Team, you know, take advantage and keep my town clean, which it should be."
Bottles, wrappers, masks, and more were found between Union Street and Toby Creek.
"Sickening, it's heartbreaking. We are human beings, and we cannot take care of our environment?" said Martin Dartoe of Wilkes-Barre, helping in the cleanup.
This crew tells Newswatch 16 the goal here is to clean up the streambed in Luzerne and help neighboring businesses.
"Just like to keep our town clean, noticeable. We want people to come in our town, and we have a clean, prosperous town," said Banicky. "We have a clean town. People have to come visit your town. It shows that people are taking responsibility for their town."
"The 'after' is much better than the 'before.' The 'before,' it breaks your heart and crushes your soul. It breaks you down, like damn, really? We are human beings," said Dartoe. "And we're not cleaning up ourselves? What's the common basic thing that we learned growing up? Why we're always drifting away from walking away from what we're taught?"
"I want to put a dent in this town and keep it going for month by month. We're starting today. It's a beautiful day. There's a new beginning for the borough of Luzerne," said Banicky.
Banicky and his crew say they'll keep coming back until something can be done to keep litter off the streets on a larger scale.