Litter Bugs

[bloo]

take a look at the picture of my Mustang by my name. See the large grill opening? Guy in front of me on the interstate flipped out a lit cigaret that landed in the grill area and kept burning. Not easy or cheap to replace that grill liner.

Ted

 

[LVSteve]

We have a new "unsecured load" law here which has some pretty stiff fines for the ticket. We also have an unlawful disposal of hazard material statute (started out as a lit cigarette butt law, then broadened). The fine is about $1150. "Here's your lovely parting gift".

Wish we had that here in NV. The gravel companies in Las Vegas who were making a mint during the building boom bought the legislature to ensure that our so called law is best used to wipe yourself in the small room.

The folk in the boonies here are no better. Years ago my Dad and I had to make a detour from our planned cross desert route because of a flash flood. It was starting to get dark, and to reassure Dad who had never been here before I told him that I knew where I was going and that paved roads were all around and we would reach one soon.

His reply was a classic. "Oh yes, I know you are getting nearer 'civilization' because I noticed the piles of beer cans and empty shotgun shell are getting bigger and more frequent".

Dad HATED litter louts, and if it took a 75% depopulation of the planet to get them all, that was fine by him.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

I was driving my 14yr. old son to a soccer game recently and he wanted to roll down the window to throw out the core to the apple he just finished eating. When I told him he couldn't do that, his response was: "Jeez, Dad, it's not trash - it's completely organic and natural, let nature take its course and chill." My response was: "Okay, you do what you want to do, and when we get home, I'm going to go to your room and take a big dump on your pillow. After all, it's completely organic and natural, and you can then let nature take its course and chill". When he got through laughing, my son acknowledged the point was made, and taken, and he saved the apple core for the trash can at the soccer field. I hope the lesson sticks. The odd thing about it is his older sister (16) is very careful about the environment, and keeping things neat and tidy - except for her room.

Regards,

Dave

 

[vytoland]

It amazes me how much people still toss their garbage out of their vehicles. There are a few groops who pick it up line the highway with hundreds of garbage bags full. I think a lot ofi this comes from the back of pickups with loose trash.

WRONG!! the trash that is EVERY where you look comes from today's society that just doesnt give a damn.

when i was kid you didnt spit your gum out on the sidewalk so it could dry into a black spot. you didnt see candy wrappers, empty slurpee cups and plastic lids every 10 feet. there were NO floating plastic bags, hanging from the trees.

However, there WAS discipline and respect. sad, but these qualities along with buddy holly and the packard automobile are long gone and it looks doubtful on their return.

 

[forresth]

What really blew my mind was in a McDonalds drive through, I saw the trash in front of me pitching the wrappers out the passenger side as quickly as they got the food from the driver's side. I am so glad I don't live near Detroit any more.

 

[Andy Griffith]

If you remember, in the movie The Magnificent Seven, Yul Brenner is called a "litterbug" for throwing out a burned match, IIRC.

My wife gets on to me for throwing out any older vegetable or fruit matter way out in the front yard near the road. It either get eaten by animals or biodegrades. I've discussed before that it's my trash, and I'm keeping every piece of it I can possibly use- ain't no one else getting it for free if'n I can help it.

I do like burning tires on earth day though. I usually have uses for used tires once I cut them up though.

 

[Mickey D]

I remember in the '60s there were TV and bill board advertisements about not being a "litter bug". We also where taought at home, school and Boy Scouts to not little and respect the land. I shared these same values with my children, in that when we went camping they were taught to police the area and leave it better than when we arrived.

It's a shame the current generation has become so careless.

 

[LVSteve]

It's a shame the current generation has become so careless.

Trouble is that these days if there is not an iPhone app for a task, it is not going to happen.

 

[pineappleshooter]

Don't know if any of you listen to Neil Boortz. He is a libertarian talk show host. Long story short - prior to talk radio, he was a lawer. His office was on the ground floor of a building he owned. He saw a lady dump her ashtray in his parking lot and then go into the building to conduct her business. He waited a couple of minutes then went out to the parking lot and superglued the butts to the windshield of her Mercedes. Went back into his office and waited for her to return to her car. She drove off cursing with the wipers on full blast trying to wash off the little bits of paper. Too funny!

 

[guitar1580]

Around here, you can even find beer cans and plastic bags all over the woods, thanks to the redneck yayhoos strapping beer coolers onto their ATV, quad, 4 wheeler, glorified golf carts, or whatever you want to call them. I always wonder why they don't just throw the cans back in the cooler. Sometimes they hang a bag in a tree and leave that hanging around full of cans. Just lovely.

I've been a dirt bike rider & nature lover for decades. My bike is quiet, and I leave the woods the way I find them. Back in the 1970s and before the explosion of ATVs, the trails were narrow single tracks instead of 2 ditches, and all you saw were tracks left by horses or occasional dirtbikes, and I can safely say I never saw as much as a bottle, can, or piece of paper in 15 years and miles of woods. Bikers would shut the machines down to let horses pass, and folks respected each other as well as the environment. But then again, riders of horses & dirt bikes have to have skills ... you can't easily jump on your first day and blunder through the woods with a beer and a chainsaw and get very far, so you never used to see that. Different world today.

I hate the cigarette butts too, and usually leave my high beams on when someone throws one out in front of my vehicle.

Josh P

 

[Aden67]

If you're older like me...than you will remember the TV adds with the indian who was crying over the litter along the highway.

When I take my kids hiking/fishing...we bring along a grocery sack to collect trash we find. I have tried to teach them that while it is good for you not to litter...you can do a bit better and pick up what you see.

 

[moonclip]

If you're older like me...than you will remember the TV adds with the indian who was crying over the litter along the highway......

Ironeyes Cody
The Crying Indian - full commercial - Keep America Beautiful - YouTube

......moon

 

[JOERM]

Moonclip.....thank you for that. I think of that commercial every time I see trash along the road. The new thing around here is to dump old cars,washers and dryers,sofas you name it on back logging roads or state lands. And people wonder why so many good back roads are gated up. Sucks.

Thanks again.
Joe

 

[Cyrano]

I'm thankful for the beer cans along the road, and here in Texas we have more than our share of them. I pick them up and play kick the can with them and whatever handgun I've brought along. Then I pick up the shattered remains and put them in the recycle bin.