Monday, September 19, 2016

Talking About Litter

As popular and useful as litter pickup campaigns are, I can never hear about one without thinking that it wouldn't be so necessary if people put trash where it belongs in the first place.

I have seen trash stuck in tree cavities, fences, bushes and down sewers, all of which show a glimmer of good intention but no common sense. And then there are the flat-out trashers who toss garbage from vehicles or eat on the street, leaving food wrappers behind them. The worst sight is a parent who lets children drop cups and snack bags instead of directing them to a receptacle or holding it until they get home. If children grow up expecting someone to clean up after them, we see the results around our schools in trails of trash.

It's true, a clean-up campaign promotes neighborhood camaraderie and pride in the outcome, I am just waiting for the day when we all agree to keep our yards, streets and public places clean in the first place.

--Bernice

4 comments:

  1. I have lived in this city for 30 years and have never seen the quality of life erode so horribly with regards to trash and people throwing it out vehicle the window, dropping picket tickets adult examples.

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  2. Think about it - this doesn't happen in Westfield because there is an atmosphere where dropping trash is not acceptable.

    Plainfield needs to adopt that attitude. I have seen people drop trash out of their car windows, or drop trash as they are walking on the street. You can bet I say something. Most people are so shocked that someone noticed that they just pick it up and apologize.

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  3. One of my neighbors who was in his 80s and walking with a cane at the time, would do a daily litter patrol of the block to clean up after the school kids who failed to realize what a garbage can looked like. If he can do it, so can they. Such slobs.

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  4. I use to go down town and remove the bills from the light post and the trash cans (5 layers thick) . when I asked Edison Garcia about this behavior he said that this is how the community communicates. I suggested he change the ordinance so this was not illegal or stop posting on top of posting.
    Our city is better than this "trashy" behavior, we deserve better!
    I have approached people when the litter, oh my how they respond but they don't pick it up
    We have to teach the little ones who can teach their parents as we were tough "DON'T BE A LITTER BUG"

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