Litter Gitter Riding Mower Makes Trash Pickup Easy, Fun

Litter Gitter Riding Mower Makes Trash Pickup Easy, Fun FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 24-5-21 "Picking up litter along highways is easy and even fun since I got this idea," says Vernon Feiler, Ocala, Fla., who straps a pair of 25-gal. plastic tubs to his Husqvarna riding lawn mower. The tubs are held in place by rubber straps cut from old inner tubes, with a hook at each end. A short board bolted to the tractor drawbar provides a platform for the back tub. The other tub rests on the mower deck. Feiler drops cans or bottles into the back tub and anything that's not recyclable in the other one. When he gets home he sorts the glass from the plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Feiler got his "litter gitter" idea soon after he "adapted" two miles of highway in his state's Adapt-A-Highway program. "I've picked up hundreds of bags of trash. I put a sign on front and back of the tractor so drivers know I'm a volunteer and not getting paid by the county. "The gripper can pick up a postage stamp as easily as a beer can. They sell for about $25 and can be purchased at hospital supply stores or anywhere else that wheelchairs are sold. It gets to be sort of like a game of poor man's polo as you practice snatching up litter without stopping. "I go along both sides of the road once a week, which amounts to a four-mile tractor ride every seven days. Each week I fill the trash tub and nearly fill the other tub with cans and bottles. I find that it's best to collect the litter each week or else it gets to be too much work to be fun." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Vernon Feiler, 9350 SW 19th Ave. Rd., Ocala, Fla. 34476 (ph 352 237-1507).

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