spinnaker

Maybe this belongs elsewhere we will see.

Is anyone else sick of the litter they see on their ride? You kind of get up close and personal with liter on a ride.

We had a couple of warm days here and I was lucky enough to get out on the road for a couple of rides. I guess the hard working folks that try to keep the roads clean just don't want to go out and clean the roads during the winter I don't blame them.

What is really upsetting is the morons who think it is OK to dump their tires and other trash on back roads.

The question is what to do about it?

Yeah you could adopt a road and clean it but it will only be back in a week or so.

Does anyone know how to get a political action committee together? I think it would be a simple matter to have legislation that says, large appliances and tires would need to be registered by the buyer. Serial numbers could be filed off but at least you would get some people too stupid to remove the number.

I was also thinking that very large fines that could be enacted where the person turning in the litter bug would get the lions share of the fine. If you could actually collect most of the fines then a whole industry could be created by catching scofflaws.

Anyone else sick of the litter?

StephenH

The problem is not laws or lack thereof. Laws don't do any good if you have widespread disregard of them anyway. The problem is public attitudes, and changing that is a trick in itself.

Pocko

^ Yeah, broken beer bottles thrown by friday night boy-racer wannabies!

Sick of repairing punctures!

.

Robert Foster

I would be the last person to splash cold water on a problem I agree we have. However it seems as if this problem is pretty low on the priority list of most officials. If you have ever bought a set of tires you already know write down the serial number of each tire they put on your car. So if the effort seemed worth it you would think they could track down who last had those tires you see on the side of the road. There is a fine for dumping trash on the side of the road but it seems it is too hard or time consuming to bother with.

spinnaker

But you won't change those attitudes because there are morons raising morons.

The problem is that there is very little chance of being caught so people think nothing of doing it. The punishment should reflect the possibility of getting caught. And public service announcements something to the effect of "Yeah you think we probably won't catch you but if we do......"

Retro Grouch 

The next time that you are in a lfet turn lane waiting for the light to change take a look at the side of the road. Appearantly a lot of smokers take that opportunity to empty their car ash trays. YUCK!

spinnaker

Correct that is why I think if you made the fine worth it then private individuals would get involved. There are states that are smart enough to have deposits on bottles and you see lots of people picking them up that want to make an extra buck. How many tires would be on the road if you could collect $100 or more in fines /reward?

10 Wheels

I still enjoy flats from broken beer bottles.
Please drink from cans.
Thanks

Red Baron

The most ugly of all is beauty spoiled.

spinnaker

Yeah, saw a guy do this in the church parking lot where we have permission to use as a park and ride. I confronted him about it. What an attitude he had. I took him aside and said something, what I should have done was either let the whole bus know or take his license and have the Father talk to him. That would have been embarrassing.

CCrew

But Spinnaker, if you look at those laws, you'll see that all the states that have enacted them have issues with people coming in from neighboring states where there was no deposit paid, and collecting.

I'm not putting the kibosh on your idea, I think it's great. It's just that it would have to be universal, which means federally mandated, and then the states get their respective panties in a bunch.

-R

bikebuddha 

Jes, Oui, and Affirmative!

BarracksSi

Wasn't this addressed, oh, thirty-odd years ago?

I'm just old enough to remember when litter was BAD. It's still better now than it was back then.

nivekdodge

Spinnaker,
I am not trying to rationalize or make excuses for but, I worked for a company that is very close to where you and I live. One of the things I noticed is the amount of litter on the roads around 22-30. Then I noticed people cleaning it up from some of the local refuse companies and then I started to see something. The amount of trash that comes out of the garbage trucks on the way to the dump is amazing. There is a landfill on rt22-30 that is responsible for a ton of litter on that road. The owners of the landfill send crews out every couple days to clean up but the amount that comes out in between these days is huge. I say this because I drove 22-30 as part of my job and 2-3 times a day was average. So I started to notice the patterns that were here and it might not be the only cause but in this area it contributes more than just a little bit. And if this is the bottom of the funnel, imagine how many bits and pieces are lost getting to 22-30. I now drive 20+ thousand a year in ths county and I have to admit I rarely see something like you describe, when someone tosses something from thier car.

Kevin

bikebuddha 

Agreed at least you don't see pop tops everywhere now days, but it seems the younger generation doesn't take it seriously.

downtube42

Yes, I'm sick of it - in general I favor deposits as a means of reducing litter.

It's very temping to fall into the trap of pointing a finger at others on this issue; I'm very fastidious about keeping track of my trash when biking, hiking, backpacking, or just driving. I also commute on a bike. On the other hand, I drive about 10k a year burning fossil fuel, I'm burning coal-generated electricity to run this computer for my leisure - both of which dump pollution into the atmosphere. I surely am responsible for a significant amount of trash each year in packaging and disposable products.

The "morons" who throw trash out their windows are exceptional in our culture only in that their pollution is visible - in fact that visible pollution is the tip of the iceburg.

KirkeIsWaiting

yep.
that's why we were out, as a group, last Saturday doing a beach clean up.

Robert Foster

There is another problem that has happened in my area. Some of the counties decided that white metal couldn't be dumped in the same place as other refuse. So after a while you either had to get the company that you bought your new stove or whatever from to take your old stove. When that wasn't possible we started to see white metal tossed out along river beds and deserted fields so the counties had to make recycling centers to take white metal. But you are correct about cans and bottles. Because we have recycling centers close to us you don't see many cans along the side of the road. Now we are faced with a problem getting rid of old TVs and Computer screens. I am lucky I have found a county number for hazardous material pickup.

Bob Nichols

Riding yesterday I saw a whole trash bag that had spilt open and trash all along the side of the road. Don't know if it fell out of someone's truck or was thrown out. I don't ever throw trash out of my car window. Just throw it on the floor and then clean the car out every once in a while. We could save a lot on money on trash pick up if everyone would do this.

Retro Grouch 

That's the first question I ask when we're shopping for a new appliance. I tell the salesman before we look at anything that not hauling the old appliance away is a deal breaker. They almost always find a way to make it work. If they have to factor something into their price, I don't care.

127.0.0.1

the best you can do is get a dump truck and pick up the stuff yourself




it is so easy to complain, but step up and do something. pick it up.

decide what makes you a better person.

spinnaker

That doesn't fix the problem. A week later and it will be back again. I'm not complaining I am looking for solutions to a problem.

enine

I have plenty of relatives whos appliances are so bad they happily take my used ones, I've usually just bought new when we either didn't have one before or remodeled, usually buying higher end stuff that has never broken down or was easy enough and worth fixing if it did. Broke the water fill tube on our washer years ago when I washed a large comforter and the duct tape i fixed it with is still holdng fine.
The wosrt is people that flip lit cigarest out, I've stomped out a couple small leaf fires. When they do that while stopped at a light I always want to pick them back up and toss them back in the car.

BarracksSi

About the cigarettes --

Honestly, it amazes me that a smoker is disgusted by something that they're, well, smoking.

Pocko

^ I actually know of a cyclist who smokes and rides...