What's with the litter?

[CNY rider]

Here's my tally on a 4 mile stretch of beautiful, open road that goes through mostly farm land on my way to work this morning:

5 beer containers, mix of bottles/cans
2 soda cans
5 food packaging wrappers, mainly chips etc.
2 fast food bags and wrappers, looked like McD's

What's up with that? Why would somebody just heave their junk out the window and think it's magically gone?
Why the correlation with beer and fast food?
It just irritates me, and was a downer to an otherwise nice early morning ride.

[victoryfactory]

It could be normal post winter buildup from snow cover and runoff.
It will decrease as the roads remain snow free for a while.
Try riding in NYC for 35 years.


Sheeshh.

VF

[TimD]

I notice this all the time and it drives me nuts.

[Sandy]

Was walking my dog in the woods about a week ago along a gas line behind some homes. Saw one small section, near a stream that runs through the woods, in which there was a lot of trash- soda or beer cans, food wrappers,....It really made the section look so ugly and I wondered why people would do that. It really stood out and looked so much worse than I even thought it could.


Sandy

[csm]

people suck. it's just embarassing to see.

[skijoring]

Tragedy of the Commons.

[girlie]

The other day I saw a UPS truck driver open his door and throw out a drink cup. It confuses me to no end.

girlie

[paulh]

Some people are just pigs in more respects than litter. Yes, I've seen the usual + litter buildup over the winter. Other examples:

My wifes employer has the nicest health club facilities I've ever seen. State of the art everything. Wooden electronic lockers, private shower stalls, nice towels and washclothes provided. The result: towels and washclothes strewn everywhere like 4 year olds. They think mom will be coming by to pick up after them.

At my office there is a shared microwave with another office. "Spaghetti boy", who has not been caught in the act yet, comes in and the red sauce just explodes everywhere. Does he clean it up? Naw! Cover it with wax paper.... doesn't cross his mind. And then others come in and heat their stuff up without a basic wipe down and it further welds on the pasta sauce. Nice goin'!!!!

[konstantkarma]

Originally Posted by girlie

The other day I saw a UPS truck driver open his door and throw out a drink cup. It confuses me to no end.

girlie

Get his truck number and report him Girlie! Most employers are very responsive to reports of their employees besmirching their reputations.

[konstantkarma]

On my Saturday ride...admittedly on a busy state highway (not that that's an excuse), I saw 3 full cases of beer bottles tossed on the side of the road. My theory is that beer cans and bottles get tossed because of open container penalties. The problem gets worse near the end of the high school school year around here. Also, the quality of the beer bottles/cans gets worse towards the end of the school year.

The amount of trash I see on the sides of the road was one of the hardest things to get "used to" after moving to Maryland from Colorado. There seems to be a larger environmental blindspot in these parts .

[William]

How many of you pick up the trash that you find?

Just askin’

I routinely pick up beer bottles, cans, plastic wine bottles (who drinks that crap?), and fast food litter on my road. I live in a more rural area and my road is one of the major cycling routes out into the country. I just try to do my part to make my area, and the area for local cyclists to cruise through a little better.




William


PS: I would love to catch these folks in the act…it’s hard to throw trash out the window when your arm is in a cast and your fingers are in splints.

[csm]

my other related peeve is the a**holes that use the outside world as their ashtrays. for that reason alone I think smoking should be outlawed and punishable by a beatdown.
in fact, I think if you witness littering and/or butt-throwing or even ash-tapping out the window it should fall within your rights to follow the offender home and administer corporal punishment.
and I'm only half-kidding.

[johnnymossville]

I took a walk with my daughters down to the Drug Store the other day and the sides of the road were absolutely disgusting. I think it's time to organize a neighborhood clean-up crew. This stuff is just nuts.

[Steevo]

My observation is that its always bad this time of year as the snow melts. With budgets tight, the roads may not be as well maintained as in the past. Time to get those "community service" crews out there cleaning up the mess. Seriously though, its unfathomable to me to ever think of throwing stuff out the car window.

As far as cleaning the stuff up, its tough to do while one is out riding on the roads, but when hiking, I always carry out random trash from the woods.

[Bernie]

not offered as an excuse, but only as an explanation.....

our state dept. of transportation has been taking a beating (as many around the country) with the current budget woes. All state agencies have been searching for ways to pull stuff out of their budgets. This has impacted their use of funds for right of way maintenance, including litter pickup, mowing, etc. Locally, the maintenance folks have told us they have taken litter removal out of any contract maintenance they do and are also not doing any litter pickup themselves.

I imagine that might change when mowing season starts since you can't mow over some of the stuff safely....but then again maybe they won't be mowing. In any regard the lack of funding for road maintenance has had a visible impact in regard to litter.