ANAHEIM : Couple Plan a Trashy Vacation

Most people have become so desensitized to the litter around them that they don’t really see it anymore.

Other people might pick up a piece if they pass it, but they won’t go out of their way to clean up what is, after all, somebody else’s mess.

Then there are Sue and Glen Hanket. The Anaheim couple plan to go out of their way this spring and summer picking up litter. Way out.

Starting April 1 in Maine, the Hankets--who have only been married since July--plan to walk westward across the country, picking up trash as they go. By November, they hope to be in Colorado, where they’ll adjourn for the winter before resuming their trek to the Pacific Coast in April, 1994.

“We were driving back from a softball game in Irvine last summer on the San Diego Freeway when I saw this disgusting pile of trash, and I said to Glen, ‘That would make a great idea to base a walk around,’ ” Sue Hanket said. “We’ve always talked about how we would like to walk or bike across the country, and this is going to give us a reason to do it.”

“I’ve wanted to do a big journey for a long time,” Glen Hanket said.

So, armed with litter sticks, plastic bags, three pairs of boots each, a tent and backpacks, the Hankets--both are 36--will walk back roads, highways and trails looking for trash and talking up the evils of litter to whomever will listen.

Glen Hanket, a computer software engineer at Rockwell International, and Sue, a teacher’s assistant at Palmyra Elementary School in Orange, both admit that on the surface the journey seems a bit offbeat. But they say their friends have been supportive and some are even a bit jealous that they are going to get to do something so unusual. He has arranged a leave from his job, but she hasn’t.

“A lot of people say they wish they could chuck it all in for nine months or a year,” Glen Hanket said.

“Some people can’t believe that we would risk our jobs, particularly in a recession,” Sue Hanket said.

The Hankets, both experienced hikers, have been practicing for their journey, spending their weekends walking through Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley with their litter sticks picking up trash as they go.

“And on my lunch hour, I’ll get my stick out of the truck and go down to Seal Beach and walk,” Glen Hanket said. “You’d be surprised how many people and joggers will stop and thank us for picking something up.”