A simple solution to roadside trash
This isn’t the first time I’ve tackled the highway litter problem, and probably won’t be the last. Here, I’ll focus on what our Legislature can do about it.
As a former jogger, now mostly a walker, I’ve noticed some things a lot more while walking than I ever did while jogging. Some sections of our highways, especially where cars are slowed down by stop lights or sharp curves, are so littered that it looks as if there is a carpet of trash, and back roads where 20 to 30 miles per hour is the average speed are trash magnets.
“Natural State”—what an oxymoron!
The average Arkansawyer would like to see our roadsides cleaned up, but how do we do it? Picking up the trash is a horrible solution, but better than doing nothing.
Back when I was chairman of the Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, which is now the state Department of Environmental Quality, I led a push for the Arkansas Department of Transportation to post roadside signs warning that littering could result in a $1,000 fine, along with a
phone number.
The department took our suggestion and put up the signs. There were hundreds of calls along with reported license numbers, but the last time I checked, not a single fine had been levied. If we aren’t going to enforce our littering laws, what can we do?
Why not take a look at dozens of states where something is getting done?
Instead of haggling over a bill to pre-empt the regulation of children’s lemonade stands, why not pass a bill that would cut down on the tons of trash that fill our roadsides? We’re not leading the country in regulations to outlaw the use of items such as oneuse cups, plastic eating utensils, plastic bags, and Styrofoam products.
Some of you are probably shaking your heads, mumbling about your rights and saying, “This ain’t no California.”
Every one of those regulations will one day be passed by the Legislature. That’s just the way it works. But today, how many votes would a bill banning all of those products get in the Arkansas Legislature, if you could even find a legislator to introduce a bill? It would never get out of committee, but if by hook or crook it did, would it even get a half-dozen votes? No!
So where do we start? It’s really one trashy item at a time.
Beer and soft drink cans are among the leading trash makers along our highways. Aluminum cans don’t seem to be worth enough to encourage someone to pick them up, so let’s mandate they be sold in glass returnable bottles, and tack on a 15-cent deposit … no, forget that.
We’re not ready for an aluminum can ban, even though 10 states have similar laws, some since the 1970s. You’ve got to crawl before you can walk, and we’re still in the womb. Let’s start with some baby steps.
Why don’t we kick off the antilitter campaign with two simple items? No. 1: Let’s acknowledge the huge plastic problem we have by banning plastic straws. It’s been a couple of years since Vertis and I have used straws of any kind. Once you start turning down straws, you won’t even think of drinking with them. Would you drink a beer with a straw?
No. 2: Let’s ban plastic bags, and make it a 50-cent automatic charge per bag to use a store’s paper sack. We’ve been using our own reusable sacks for a couple of years, and once you get started using your bags, you will do it every time.
Even though some stores won’t sack purchases in your sacks, that’s not a big deal. And you can have that “holier than thou” attitude as you walk out of Walmart behind a guy pushing a basket with 20 plastic sacks of groceries.
Not only are mountains of trash clogging our roadsides; they’re loading up landfills with non-biodegradable plastic. Just think what our roadsides would look like if ArDOT didn’t pick up any of the trash? Then think of the thousands of dollars per year spent trying to keep the trash from covering us up.
If it’s plastic trash, and not disposed of, it will be there for around 100 years. By not recycling, countries around the world are using a tremendous amount of their resources to keep their citizens supplied with Styrofoam, plastic, and other throwaway items, which create billions of tons of garbage, while their production dirties the air and the process to create the plastic contributes to global warming.
Would it be too much to ask our legislators to make an effort to address the problem?
OK, House Speaker Matthew Shepherd from El Dorado, the roadside litter capital of south Arkansas. The ball is in your court.