Some streets of Bountiful are often packed with people walking, running, biking or just hanging outside. Bountiful Blvd. and Davis Blvd. are pretty flat and so inviting for leisurely walks compared to the rest of Bountiful’s hilly streets. Stretching several miles encompassing two 18-hole golf courses, a cemetery and a temple, Bountiful Blvd. is particularly busy. One area near the cemetery has become a hangout for many cars and trucks loaded with friends and families. A place to play games, socialize and watch the sun sink into the Great Salt Lake over Antelope Island. Though most people are respectful and try to clean up after themselves, it is inevitable that the areas become littered with debris left behind. On windy days, just collecting the trash can result in various items flying sideways as the cans are dumped. One man, Scott Peterson, walks almost daily along the most traveled roads in Bountiful picking up an average of one grocery bag of trash per mile as he goes.

Peterson first started picking up trash when he lived in Texas in a newer suburban neighborhood with a lot of new construction. He picked up a lot of nails and screws and other building debris just to keep it from ruining his tires. When he moved to Arizona, he kept up his habit of throwing away cups and papers that were left around his neighborhood. “It’s been nice to be back in Utah for the last couple of years where we have such beautiful scenery,” said Peterson, “and can stop and watch the sunset.” 

He first just picked up a few things with his hands and tossed them, but soon decided to carry a grocery bag to collect the trash. Since, a lot of the trash was cans and plastic bottles that can be recycled, he started carrying around a white grocery bag for trash and brown for recycling. Remembering the old phrase “white trash,” helps him keep them straight. He usually walks across Bountiful Blvd. and down 1800 South past the busy area around Mueller Park Junior High. Davis Blvd. does not have as much litter, and he uses that road to complete his loop. 

He usually sticks to the sidewalks, but if the weather is cooperative, he is willing to go off road and clear out some debris in the fields surrounding the sidewalks. Once he fell into a large rosebush, but perseveres. When a couple of sofas were left in a field off the boulevard, he borrowed a family truck and removed them. He finds soda bottles, golf balls and pizza boxes, as well as less savory items like diapers, bags of dog poop, or condoms. He uses a stick for things he does not want to touch. 

He tries to get five miles of walking in, but less if he has the time to golf. “Collecting trash can break the monotony of a long walk,” he said. 

Peterson grew up in Logan and graduated from Utah State University. He finished his law degree at Columbia. Peterson believes that people likely view him as a “crazy old man” as he carries bags around Bountiful, although he is actually an ivy-league lawyer working for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Peterson has sighted some wild animals around the neighborhood: a four-foot snake, a coyote and of course the Bountiful mule deer. Another reason he believes in keeping the shared neighborhood clean – one bag of trash at a time. λ