Went to the lake.....it was depressing

[Farmer17]

We went to the lake Monday, to have a picnic and bar-b-q some chicken and most of the people had already left so it was a pretty nice, relaxing way to end a busy and fun-filled Holiday. We've had a lot of rain and the temperatures have been cool and everything was nice and green, the campgrounds and roads have been well maintained, but there was only one problem....there was trash and litter everwhere! It was so disgusting I couldn't believe it, and there were beer cans, cigarette butts, baby diapers, and about every kind of trash you can imagine, and it really saddened me there are so many people around here with no desire to clean up after themselves. I've been to the camping areas in other states and I don't see near the litter problems like we have around here, so how do other places manage to keep people from littering?

 

[Forester]

It is a big problem here as well. Lots of out-of-towners feel no compunction about throwing their trash all over the beach. I always call people on it when I see it but it is a drop in the bucket.

 

[Jst1mr]

Nearly every place you go the roadsides are disgusting. I have never thrown anything other than an apple core out a vehicle window and can't understand the mentality behind it. When I lived in Colorado, where I thought a more green mentality would exist, I was continually amazed at the trash strewn about. Another manifestation of today's lazy and indifferent culture I suppose.

 

[Frank237]

Makes me crazy as well. Can NOT understand how people simply drop their trash anywhere and feel it's acceptable!

When I was still on the job I saw a vacationer in the summer stopped alongside the Highway...changing a baby diaper on the trunk lid of her Volvo. I had a "cut across" nearby so decided to hop the median rail and see if that was all she was doing,not broken down, etc.

By the time I get to the turnout she was parked at...she is gone...but a steaming, crap filled baby diaper, as well as a couple of empty coffee cups are on the ground!!

I stuck it all in a small, clear plastic bag I use for trash and took off southbound to catch her. Few miles later I stop her.... OHIO plates. I walk up to the car, with the bag hidden behind my back. I said Hello and simply handed her the bag. "I believe You forgot THIS" was all I said....Though I was giving her my STERN/UNHAPPY look as well.

It was priceless...She took the bag and lowering her eyes...simply said "Thank You Officer". I walked back...she drove off.

FN in MT

 

[NFrameFred]

My "favorite" low-life-losers in this category are the human excrement who are too sorry to get out and go in the fast-food joint, but go through the drive-through and then proceed to sit in their parked cars in the lot, eat, and dump their trash out the window or under the car.

I revise that - people who do that are worse than monkey excrement.

These types are closely followed in esteem by shoppers at the supermarket or the local Wally World who turn around and shove their shopping carts aside after they unload them when there are return bays every 50 feet through the lot.

Some people aren't worth the powder and caps it would take to send 'em to the next world . . .

 

[pluspea]

I was following a van going into the pigeon forge area when I observed the driver dispose of a fast food bag the size of a football out the window. I phoned the local P.D. and informed them about what I saw, along with the tag number. They assured me that it would be investigated, but don't know if it ever was. It did make me feel better about doing something about this awful practice.

 

[BE Mike]

I have never thrown anything other than an apple core out a vehicle window and can't understand the mentality behind it.

I've thrown banana peels out the window, hoping that some trash dumpers might slip on them.

 

[feralmerril]

That all is bad, but what is serious bad is throwing out cigarret butts. That can and has burnt the country up along with the cost and loss of life etc. Frankly, a lot cant be done about it. Try slapping around someone when spotted and you would be in big trouble----unless someday the country turns around and it would be sop. Then it also would be survival of the fitist---and maybe it should be!

 

[OLDFED]

Just Rewards...

A long time back, when I was pushing my unmarked car around, I had stopped behind a Cadillac at a traffic light. The driver opened his door and dumped his very full ashtray onto the road along with some food wrappers. When the light changed, I followed him about three miles, then pulled him over. I asked him where he was coming from and he started to give me a line I knew wasn't true. When I told him he had been reported dumping trash on the road, he adamantly denied it, saying that whoever called must have gotten the wrong plate number. He changed his story when I told him I had been right behind him as he tossed his junk. I gave him the option of a ticket for $1,000 (the max.) or going back and cleaning up the entire intersection. He opted for the latter and I supervised. About 40 minutes later, he finished and I thanked him for doing his civic duty. He seemed embarassed, but when he saw all that trash that he and others had left, he became aware of the bigger issue. Today, I'd probably be brought up on charges of police brutality or denying him his rights but decades ago, it was the right and acceptable thing to do.

 

[Dobbs]

I see the why as a direct result of the influx of third world people who bring their slovenly cultures with them. They have no interest in assimilating, and therefore acquiring what are our social norms.

I believe that Scotsbrae has the answer. See his signature line….

 

[cowboy117]

I see the why as a direct result of the influx of third world people who bring their slovenly cultures with them. They have no interest in assimilating, and therefore acquiring what are our social norms.

I believe that Scotsbrae has the answer. See his signature line….

Plenty of Americans too,are too lazy to take their trash to a dumpster.

 

[jphendren]

I too dislike people who litter. Whenever I go hiking I bring along an old grocery sack of some sort, and pick up any trash along the trail. I have never thrown anything on the ground on purpose, but apparently some people feel that it is okay. Don't get upset guys, but in my experience, the worst offenders are people who shoot firearms. There are entire canyons around Las Vegas that are filled with garbage that people have taken out and shot full of holes. My wife filled a trash can full of shotgun shells on one trip, and it didn't even put a dent in the mess out there. You could fill dumpsters and not put a dent in it. I always clean up my brass, and targets, along with other people's garbage as well.

Jared

 

[wbraswell]

Remember the old saying, "It takes one to know one"? Well, it takes trash to leave trash.

 

[Jst1mr]

Don't get upset guys, but in my experience, the worst offenders are people who shoot firearms. There are entire canyons around Las Vegas that are filled with garbage that people have taken out and shot full of holes.

Jared

Not many canyons around here, but I have seen more than one gravel pit that fit that description. I have come to accept that there are many buffoons who own and shoot firearms (re: any of a thousand youtube videos) and there is little I can do about it except to NOT be that guy. As always, the stupidity of a few reflects poorly on the greater body of responsible and respectable gun owners, so please be careful that we are not all tarred by the overly broad brush of "those who shoot firearms..."

 

[LVSteve]

I too dislike people who litter. Whenever I go hiking I bring along an old grocery sack of some sort, and pick up any trash along the trail. I have never thrown anything on the ground on purpose, but apparently some people feel that it is okay. Don't get upset guys, but in my experience, the worst offenders are people who shoot firearms. There are entire canyons around Las Vegas that are filled with garbage that people have taken out and shot full of holes. My wife filled a trash can full of shotgun shells on one trip, and it didn't even put a dent in the mess out there. You could fill dumpsters and not put a dent in it. I always clean up my brass, and targets, along with other people's garbage as well.

Jared

One of the first times I took my Dad out into the Amargosa Desert we had to divert from our expected return route due to flooding. It was beginning to get dark so I reassured Dad that we were not lost as we were surrounded by metalled roads and it was just a case of finding a track that went through to one of them. He replied that he knew we were nearing "civilisation" as the count of beer cans, broken bottles and piles of shotgun shells was increasing. En masse, humans are a filthy and destructive species.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

If you think they are slobs when they discard their trash, wait till you see the insides of their cars or houses or apartments. Conversely I live in a fairly liberal town yet I am amazed at the quality of items i find left on the curb-bicycles, coolers, camping gear, electronics. The throwaway mentality is not limited to the lower classes.

 

[ldausmc1369]

Trash

If you have ever had the opportunity to travel to some of the third world countries, such as Mexico, India, Thailand, Pakistan, China, Viet Nam etc. you will see the effect of the migration of their citizenry and culture to our great nation. Chunk it out the window, leave it where it lays, do nothing to it till it falls down, etc. I have seen numerous citizens from south of the border who have infested, and that's the term I will use, this area (the horse country) of KY leaving/throwing trash out the windows, in the parking lots, etc. Before the mass immigration/migration over the last 20 years or so, the roadsides were not nearly as trashy as they are today. I find that true in any of the Southeastern states where mass migration for farm labor is centered. And, I don't know the answer to the problem/question. I just know we pay private companies to pick up the trash on the roadside every year before Derby time so the roadsides and medians can be spruced up for the visitors.

 

[writerinmo]

Way back when I was a little bitty boy, long before we had any sort of influx into this country of Vietnamese, Bosnian s, Pakistanis, any of the ones mentioned previously, I belonged to 4H. In the summertime we would go out and on a 12 mile long stretch of highway between our town and the next we would pick up trash... LOTS and LOTS of trash. Everything you might imagine back then, from stuff that probably just blew out of the back of someones pickup from not being tied down well to stuff obviously broken, worn out and just dumped out the back when no one was in sight. Don't be blaming it on foreign cultures, sure, they have their slobs too, but America has had problems with illegal dumping and litterbugs many years before emigration of these "Third World" citizens even began. When I see idiots tossing stuff out the window, it is usually people in their 20's and 30's driving mid-priced cars with a cell phone held tight to the side of their head...

 

[oldogy]

Several years ago, I belonged to a loosely knit Jeepers organization. Our main riding area was the Ocala National Forest in Florida. We organized a few clean up days and it was amazing what we would gather in the course of a day. In one day we filled four large, I believe 20 yard dumpsters with all kinds of trash, mainly household stuff. I guess folks thought if they got it back off the roadway, into the weeds and trees it was alright.
Yep, it takes trash to dump trash.
oldogy

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

IMHO part of the problem is the end of deposits on beverage bottles.
I was in the Boy Scouts in the 1960s, we always cleaned up our campsites, burnt what wasn't to be packed out. In the Army we policed up the ranges after firing-"No brass or ammo, Sergeant!"