'Makes The Earth Feel Sad': 7-Year-Old On Mission To Clean Up Litter Across Philadelphia
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PHILADEPHIA (CBS) — In a city that some have nicknamed "Filthadelphia," there's a new trash collector making the rounds.
Though he dreams of a career out of this world as an astronaut, for now, 7-year-old Aiden Root, of Roxborough, is focused on how he can make it better.
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"I think people can't litter because it makes the earth feel sad," he said.
Recently, his mom, Erica, started noticing his aversion to apathy.
"We'll be driving in the car, he'll look out the car window and say, 'Agh, there's trash!' and, 'Why would people do that?' and get really mad about it," she said.
So she bought him kids' gloves and a trash picker to channel his anger into action.
Since then, she's been his right-hand woman helping him clean up the environment one block at a time.
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"I'm his little trash bag," she said. "I hold the bag and he puts the trash in."
Aiden's vision of a cleaner city may start with him, but it doesn't end there.
"They have to pick it up!" he said. "If people litter, it makes this a place where trash is and we don't want that."
Aiden's mission to clean up the streets comes just a few weeks after the city and a group of citizens took action against the city's litter problem by collecting illegal signs and flyers.