Is it my imagination or is there more litter - everywhere?
Driving along local roads, there are so many areas that look like garbage escaped from sanitation trucks and landed along the streets of Long Island.
A lot has to do with drivers who think nothing of throwing plastic bottles, coffee cups, wrappers, fast food containers and other trash from their cars. What about the slobs who empty their ash trays in parking lots, not to mention used disposable diapers?
We rarely see clean-up crews picking up debris, but Long Island's not looking too spiffy these days.
UPDATE
Thanks for your comments on this issue.
I've lived on Long Island for most of my life, and I can't remember it being as littered as it is now. Ryan, Toby, Richie and Mike we're on the same page.
But what to do about it? Mike, the question of manpower is a big one. None of us want to pay more taxes for litter clean ups. But we pay more taxes now than ever. How did the various government agencies manage in the past when we could be proud of our communities?
And what about having a sense of pride in where we live? Not just our own home towns, but Long Island as a whole.
The person Toby talked about - the smoker who threw his cigarette wrapper out the window - multiply that slob by 1,000 (a lowball number for sure), which is only a fraction of the people living in Nassau and Suffolk, and you've got mountains of fast food trash and other garbage being tossed out of car windows, landing along the highways and commercial areas.
Anybody travel along the Town of Babylon's New Highway lately? What a mess.
FRIDAY UPDATE:
Mike talks about overlapping jurisdictions, which is one of Long Island's biggest problems. But people who live in Nassau and Suffolk have always been reluctant to give up any "local" control of anything, including their school districts.
If I had a solution, I'd offer it. But I think so much of the problem is the lack of pride and respect people have. That's the bottom line. Linda (see comments) talks about the litter campaign of years ago. I agree we need one. And if kids can learn the importance of recycling, they can learn to have pride in where they live. Kids are always a great place to start when you want something good to happen. Some parents would argue that they have more important concerns, but community pride would be something youngsters would carry into adulthood.
Maybe in the scheme of things, litter doesn't seem like a big problem, especially if you're trying to raise kids in a sinking economy, when you're worried about keeping a roof over your head and problems many Long Islanders face. It wouldn't take much to have a litter-free Long Island, but it would have to become a priority and, let's face it, it's obviously pretty low on everyone's list.
Where are the Boys and Girl Scouts? The community groups that used to have clean-up days. Everyone is so busy with their own lives, we've forgotten about our community as a whole.
If anyone knows of any area on Long Island where there are programs to keep the community beautiful, let me know. I'd love to give them space on this blog. Maybe we can all benefit.
Comments (9)
Cigarette butts are by far the worse, less than 10% of all cigarette butts are deposited in litter receptacles. Eeveryday I see people throwing their cigarettes all over. Im sick of this; this county should pass laws increasing fines for cigarette litter. Cigarette butts are the most common type of litter on earth.
This litter is literally everywhere, from playgrounds to beaches, from pools to waterways. I see little kids playing and sometimes trying to eat these cigarettes when left on the ground. The CDC studied 146 children aged 6 months to 2 years who had ingested cigarettes or cigarette butts - 1/3 of them experienced illness. Our lakes and bays are polluted with them, posing a huge biohazard to all waterlife. Then theres the obvious, fires, which cause death and damage everyday.
Enough is Enough !!!
People who litter, cigarettes or anything else, should have harsh fines and mandatory community service to pick up trash.
Check out what one city is doing in Louisiana:
"No Ifs, Ands or Butts, Cigarettes Are Litter Too" -2/15/08
http://www.slidell.la.us/files/NoIfsAndsorButtsLitterCampaignweb.pdf
Heres a slogan...
"U FLICK, U PICK"
Consequences for flicking cigarette butts (or any trash) will land you a fine and up to 24 hours of mandatory community service picking up trash.
-Use revenue from the fines to cover the cost of extra trash picking equipment and any extra staff needed. This is much cheaper than having paid-full-time state/ county/ local sanitation employees picking up trash.
Cigarette smokers are by far the biggest polluters. Their habit is so dirty they don't even want the butts in the car.
I was behind a guy today, flicked out his cigarette, then opened a new pack and tossed the cellophane and foil packaging.
Come on!
I agree, Gwen. In fact I had recently emailed to you this very same issue in and around the Wantagh Parkway and Sunrise Hwy. I have tried in vain for a year now to get better responses from State, County, and Town of Hempstead agencies and leaders to increase trash and litter removal from these areas. As well as the LIRR property around the tracks in the same area. The result has been several form letters from the NYS DOT, various Town, County and State officials telling me, yes, it's terrible, but it's the "other" agencies problem, or we just don't have the budget or the manpower. Give me a break, yes, we all know that there are too many thoughtless people in our midst who pollute and they should be ticketed and prosecuted. But at the same time the different levels of government, whom we pay plenty of taxes too need to get togther and coordinate efforts to provide this most basic of government functions- trash cleanup, sanitation code enforcement and public awareness. It's a true quality of life issue.
I agree with Mike 10000000000%. Yes, people should not pollute.
But there is VERY little done in the way of upkeep and litter removal from the roadways by local government. Its not uncommon for it to go whole SEASONS before the litter is picked up, the streets swept or the lawns mowed back on major roadways. You go outside Long Island, even to other areas of the state and you dont see this. Why here? Given the taxes we pay, our roads should be immaculate.
No one should have to pick up the litter. It should never have been thrown out in the first place. When I was a teen there were TV commercials and paper ads for a Don't Litter campaign. It made it socially unacceptable to litter. It must be made embarrassing again today to litter in order for the litter to stop. Everyone is doing it. ... young and old! We are going to be the filthiest place to live soon if the Towns don't start a Don't Litter campaign.
Thanks Gwen. Clearly we are all on the same page. I think the uneven response by town, county and state agencies to keep LI clean is a microcosim of a larger problem- simply put we the tax payer are not getting value on the dollar for the taxes we pay. Are our fellow Long Islander's bigger slobs then 20 or 30 years ago?? I don't know, but everyone in and out of local government knows this is a major and frustrating quality of life issue. Knowing this- and knowing that government agencies at all levels have limited staffs and budgets- the answer is that they need to coordinate efforts with each other- near where I am in Nassau County is a patchwork of State, County and Town areas of responsibility-all in a small area- I have actually witnessed where on one day the Town cleans up their area, they stop when they get to piece of grass that is State or County land or heaven forbid the LIRR- even though they are standing right there and the State or County grass is full of trash, the Town workers leave, and the wind then blows garbage from the State or County land- I have seen the same thing happen in the reverse order too- it's simply plain stupid! Work together.
The next thing is that each of these agencies need to be truly accountable to the public- I have been told repeatedly by officials from NYS, Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead - oh yes, I will personally look into this for you take care of it- but when I press any of them as to when this will happen they don't really answer and yes, you guessed it- rarely does anything happen. When a citizen calls in an issue- it should be like at a bakery- you get a number and you will be served in X amount of minutes. You should be able call an agency of governemt- your information be taken down- and you should be given a specific person that will deal with the issue and they should tell you approximately when it will be done and rthen let you know when it is done. I understand that it may take time to get to, but at least I would know that it was being taken care of!!!
Another thing that needs to happen, and Gwen, you pointed out the amount fast food litter- yes- I see a huge amount of debris from 7-11, McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts- why not sign them all up for Adopt-a-Hwy or Road type program in areas near their stores- they should be good corporate citizens since every item of litter with their logo on it is money they took in- they can adopt-a-hwy or road or park and help fund some of the cleanup.
So what's next Gwen? We are all concerned - can you bring this to the attention of the right government agencies??
I forgot to mention about trash at "our" BEACHES.
Every Summer I see countless numbers of beach goers leave their trash on the sand. I watch as people open a botttle of water or eat a bag of chips then dump it on the sand. When they're ready to leave they pack up their towels, blankets and kids but leave the trash on the sand.
This is byfar my biggest pet peeve. Is it so difficult to bring your trash 25, 50 or 100 ft. to the nearest receptacle.
Last Summer i saw two mothers with their 5 children at Lido Beach...one of the parents left a clear ziplock bag with some type of liquid cough medicine and tylenol pills out on the sand. The parentsand kids walked away from their stuff to go down to the water. A couple of seagulls thinking it was food pecked at the bag with the meds. When the parents got back, they looked at the bag and dropped it right back onto the sand. They remained at the beach for another 10 or so minutes. They took their blankets, towels, bags and toys but left the bag with the medicine. As they walking away I stood up, walked over to the bag, picked it up and quickly walked paralle to them. l took the bag, threw it as hard as I could into the metal drum used as a garbage. Both parents were staring at me since I grabbed the bag and when I threw into the drum I GOT THE "EVIL LOOK".
Do these parents have brains? They have kids, they know that kids like to play with everything. So why would you leave a bad full of medicine on a beach where children play. If the bag was left there 3 things could,ve happened...
1. A child plays and/ or eats the medicine.
2. The wildlife eats it, gets sick and/ or dies, and the rest of it ends up in the ocean.
3. Someone picks it up (as i did) and throws it away.
This is one story, but things like this happen everysecond of everyday, everywhere. No one takes any personal responsiblity, its always someone elses problem, someone else can deal with it. Well wake up, it is your problem, this is our beach, our town, our county, our island, our state, our country and more importantly our planet.
One little cigarette butt, paper napkin or cup might not seem like a big deal but multiply it by 5,000 people at the beach or 760,000 people in the town. It adds up and it adds everyday. This is why we have a trash problem. If people won't be "adults"or humans, for that matter, and not takeaome personal responsiblity then our governement should.
Increase the fines and step-up enforcement. Force those who litter to pick litter.
We need to get something done about this problem which has been over looked time and time again. Everyone needs to tell their local elected officials that they are sick and tired of all the trash. Tell them to change existing oridinances to increase fines and penalities. Use the money from the fines to start up a program that forces people to pick up trash if they get caught littering.
where do the lit cigarette butts go??/??????