Sitting at home minding my own business and a local friend messaged me with a photo of her newspaper! haha
Front page no less!!
Want to see my concerned grumpy citizen face??
I hope you are laughing a little bit too as I think I was probably about to laugh while trying to look mad.
Honestly… I AM mad inside about the mess.
But maybe more attention will garner a bit of support and action.
Sadly, our local Mayor’s response wasn’t encouraging. You can read it here, if interested.
Sustainable Timbers is state government which is the area where the issue is. However, its our community members that are responsible for the issue and I think council should at least have a conversation how to manage local issues like this.
I think I was annoyed by the statement:
“…the problem had been going on for years, and that it came down to a problem in people’s attitudes.
“Nothing will stop what they’re doing,” he said.”
So, tsk tsk, its terrible, aren’t people awful, but shrug, nothing is going to work and its not our responsibility anyway.
That kind of defeatist attitude doesn’t endear me to people.
I hope eventually Sustainable Timbers has something more positive to say about what we can do.
So – there you go.
Me at the heart of local issues!
Have an awesome weekend!!
Cheers!
Ever hear of the concept “Broken Windows?” Basically if there’s one broken window, then other negative things happen because there is no caring about the first broken window. Bet people dump because other people have already dumped. Get that area cleaned, and people won’t dump there. They may find other areas to dump, but that’s a separate issue.
Here in the states, bottle deposits have not only removed thrown out cans, but the country side is much cleaner. People just stopped their bad behavior. The state of Maine was one of the first to pass the deposit law. The bottler companies were successful to get it on the ballot a second time. It passed again, at a higher percentage than the first time since people saw how the road sides were cleaned up.
When we lived in WVA [yes, we moved around a lot] road side dumping was horrible. The convenience and cost was the primary reason for people to do it. The county worked with trash haulers to have a monthly “Free” day. It worked, once the traditional dump sites were cleaned and signs posted with regular policing.
Good luck, hope someone in your government becomes pro active, not re active.
I hadn’t heard of the term “Broken Windows” but I fully agree and understand it. I think there would be a lot of people that would want to help clean up the area – but we would also need some other measures put in place to help.
Oh the deposits on cans and bottles! Yes!!! It was stopped years and years ago by some fool. It makes so much sense doesn’t it? Even if someone throws the item away, there were heaps of community groups collecting those to raise money!!
Thanks for the suggestions. I’d like this to run further than the ‘hand wringing’ stage 🙂
I’m proud of you. You publicly called out an issue that needs addressed and that is how change begins. I currently live in WV, USA and can tell you our landscape is much cleaner today than in the past. We have free county clean up days, people sign up to clean trash from roadways, the county will come and pick up inappropriately dumped garbage if you call it in. We live on a farm and can’t tell you how many dumped items we’ve dug out along our roadside… tires, sofa, chair, water heater, etc.
Don’t be discouraged by the neigh-sayers… change can happen!
Thank-you! It’s amazing isn’t it the mentality of people that think chucking out their rubbish is perfectly ok!! I like the idea of getting some days happening when there are free pickups and people just cleaning up! It’s been going on a fair while and I can’t believe no-one cares enough to take some actual action!
Of course nothing will stop it….it takes doing something to stop it. This would drive me batty too.
I get so angry at trash on the side of the road. I live on a dead end country road where the only people who drive down it are the people who live here….& there is still trash! Why do you throw trash in your neighbor’s ditch? It makes no sense at all. I think it is just laziness.
When I was a little girl, if my dad caught any of us throwing trash out the window of the car. He stopped the car, went back & made us get out & pick it up. He said someone had to pick it up & we shouldn’t be making a mess on someone else’s property.
Oh…you do look more like you’re trying to laugh!
Rubbish on your dead end road!! That is so uncaring and lazy – right in their own backyards!
Yes, as kids too, the ‘no littering’ thing was hammered into us! I can’t believe it is so intense up in that area… even the side of the highway is a disgrace and I wonder when it became more ‘acceptable’ or ‘commonplace’ to just chuck things out the window as you drive along?
(Yes… mostly my frowny faces were struggling with my laughing face trying to burst forth haha)
It seems the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket. This sort of thing is occurring all over the world. People feel no responsibility for their own trash and disposing of it in a way that is not offensive to our planet. Our oceans are polluted with trash, plastics are killing our ocean creatures and who cares. The planet is warming but who cares that my area of the world is having heat indexes of over 100 for days on end with no rain. Yes, who cares. Well I care. It is a crying shame that we can’t enforce laws on the books to punish those who dump their trash without a care in the world that they will be punished. Off my soap box for the moment. I am so proud of you for standing up. Perhaps it will do some good in the long run.
Hi Beverly – yes. Worldwide I think we are getting worse not better. Tsk tsk look at all the plastic floating in the river, but I’m still going to buy my veggies wrapped in unnec. plastic because… its inconvenient to do anything else! Its not enough to recycle. We have to vastly reduce as well. There has to be pressure on the big polluters along with severe consequences to polluting our rivers and oceans. Its all a system – and its all a system for a reason. Overall we are not doing a very good job at caring for the Earth. Single use plastics, coffee pods, straws, bottles. Its not a matter to become zero waste at once. Too overwhelming for most. Its a matter of adopting one or two excellent ideas, they become habit, then you find something else to help. Could be as little as taking your own supermarket and veggie bags with you everywhere. Or avoiding certain plastic wrapped food. I still have hope we can sort it out, but the problem is epic. Thanks for the message! xxx