Beer bottles, soda cans and even text books were among the hundreds of trash bags collected by generous volunteers this weekend.

Lining North Shore Road, Devon Springs Road and up and down the Island were bulging black plastic garbage bags and rattling blue recycling bags.

Susan Harvey and her husband Eugene were toiling away at the Devon Springs site for almost three hours when The Royal Gazette found them.

In just those few short hours they, along with Heidi Battiston and her daughter Isabella and Sandra Costa and her son Sergio, had collected eight blue bags and nine black bags of garbage.

One of the depressing discoveries, though was what Mrs. Harvey estimated to be more than $150 worth of school books.

She said: "We found $150 worth of school text books and little children's shores that were almost brand new.

"It wasn't a big group but interesting how much trash gets collected in three hours by a small group of dedicated people.

"There's still more to do here. One funny anecdote was when Eugene Ming with his dog Rusty showed-up. Rusty was carrying a plastic bottle. He was doing his bit for the morning."

Others were also getting family involved in what was part of the Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB) 100 Site Clean-Up.

Completely happy to be scrounging through the trees on the Barker's Hill site on her Saturday morning was six-year-old Dnaje Washington. Her grandmother, Julia Washington, had encouraged the six-year-old to help clean-up the Island so she could understand the importance of the environment.

Ms Washington said: "For the young children to give back to the community and see exactly what is happening to the environment. "And hopefully to appreciate it. Dnaje finds this fun."

George Cook, who was working alongside Ms Washington and her granddaughter, at the Barker's Hill site said they were only doing stopgap measure and it would take more from the community to make a change.

"In a way we are making the problem worse. A lot of people will throw their trash down and say don't worry someone will pick it up," he said.

"But if you don't do it, it gets worse. The long-term solution is education — not just young children, but the whole community."

He targeted three groups which could really make an impact including, cigarette smokers, fast food and take-out restaurants and grocery stores if they disposed of their trash correctly.

It would only take not having plastic bags with take-out to help and not discarding the cigarette butts, which take 10 to 12 years to disintegrate, to make an impact.

Yesterday, Richie Lathan, executive director of KBB, said he was happy with the turnout though not all 100 sites were targeted.

He said: "I was very pleased. We had an impressive turnout. Though we may not have made it to all 100 sites, I am generally pleased. Works and Engineering did a good job.

"They were really top notch. We had several people who did not get registered before who called on the day and others that said they were just going to go out and do it. One family went out on Saturday that were so disgusted that they came out yesterday."

About four or five bikes were found as were, unfortunately said Mr. Lathan, new sites that will have to be tackled by the KBB.

One of those sites which surprised volunteers was at Barker's Hill, which could become a scheduled clean-up area in July.

Next month the KBB will be helping with the mess after the July 4 celebrations at Moresby Plains in Dockyard on June 29.