An iPhone, a deck of cards, a pair of unusual boots and even a couch.

There’s no shortage of unusual items Debra Hansen and Marie Flesher find while walking their regular 5-mile loop, looking for trash to pick up to make their North Lake neighborhood a cleaner place.

Most of the time they pick up McDonald’s trash, but too often, they find more serious waste.

“We find needles, which is unfortunate,” Hansen said. “And it’s one of the reasons that we’re out there – so our neighborhood children do not get them – and we’ve gotten pretty proficient with that. We always have a water bottle with a lid on it and we put the needles in there.”

Using their “picker” to collect garbage, the two self-proclaimed “Trashy Ladies” scour the streets along 38th Avenue South, 33rd Place South, Weyerhaeuser Way, one part of South 320th Street, Military Road South and back on to South 328th Street.

“This is a real service to the neighborhood and has improved the area so much,” said neighbor and friend Lois Kutscha, who nominated the two for the Mirror’s Citizens of the Month.

Each brings a large black trash bag. They alternate carrying the recyclables, although Flesher said it’s Hansen who carries it most of the time.

But each week, their bags are filled.

“The neighborhood looks a lot better, and I think, since we’ve been picking it up, it looks cleaner and people tend to not throw out as much,” said Hansen, who has lived in North Lake for 27 years.

“And every once in a while, somebody will pause and roll down their window and thank us, and that is really nice,” added Flesher, a 45-year North Lake resident.

To keep their long walks interesting, the two have fun by making up stories about how strange items find themselves chucked to the side of the road.

“We found these boots you would not believe,” Hansen recalled. “A pair of them. They came up to there and they had fur and spokes, black-spike heels with chains on them. And a pair of them, on the side of the road. We put them in the trash but made up a story about, ‘How did those boots get out there?’”

Hansen and Flesher declined to share that particular story, but they mentioned they frequently find little liquor bottles and then a bottle of mouth wash.

“[Hansen] figured somebody’s drinking before they go home and then they’ve gotta get the mouthwash,” Flesher laughed.

“It’s pretty consistent that happens,” Hansen said. “It’s not like a one-time thing.”

Sometimes, they’ll pick up beer bottles and have a six-pack after having walked just a little farther.

“One that was really hard that somebody threw out: Along the route, a deck of cards,” Hansen said. “It was never going to end, us picking up this deck of cards.”

Although they enjoy the time they spend together and the work they do, Flesher and Hansen find it sad to see such a disrespect for the environment.

Hansen started walking around her neighborhood, collecting trash, after a trip to Namibia in March.

“I was just so impressed that there was no trash anywhere, no garbage,” she said. “Then I came home and in my own little neighborhood, it was just all over the place.”

Hansen said Namibians don’t have as much waste as Americans do.

“They have a respect for the environment, and I think that’s what bothered me the most, was the lack of respect for the environment here,” she said.

Hansen returned home in March of this year and got to work. Shortly after, Flesher joined her.

“She’s a germaphobic though,” Hansen laughed. “So I was surprised she was willing to do it.”

Flesher admits her family was surprised as well, but she said helping keep her neighborhood clean has been “great fun.”

Flesher wants more people to be aware of the consequences of littering – if not environmental, then financial.

“There’s a fine for littering, and if you see somebody do it, take down their license plate,” she said.

Because of the fast food chain’s proximity to their route, Hansen notices too much McDonald’s trash and believes it would be a great service if McDonald’s could educate children about how long it takes for their red-and-white-striped straws to break down.

“It really makes you sad when you see children’s meals in there,” Flesher said about the trash they collect. “They’re teaching their children when they throw that out to be the next generation of people littering.”

The “Trashy Ladies” ultimately want their fellow community members to take personal responsibility for taking care of the environment.

“It’s going to take all of us to get this clean,” Hansen said.

To nominate a Citizen of the Month, email your name, contact information and why you believe the Mirror should choose your nominee to editor@fedwaymirror.com.