Great thoughts
@tantefrancine where did you grow up? I do the same with recycleables I find along the road during my walks. I now carry a bag to bring them home and recycle them. We have a great recycling system here, but still my next-door neighbors (family with 2 small kids) never put out their recycle bins, and so I am sure they are just throwing away all their plastics, glass and paper that could be recycled.
Btw, if you rake up the leaves from that black walnut tree, and pile them on your weedy areas they might help you to eradicate the weeds in a more natural way. The leaves and roots of black walnut are allelopathic (they contain juglone (I think it is) and are inhospitable to other plants)
