‘Toss no Mas!’ makes a comeback
Department of Transportation revives slogan used in 1990s to prevent littering in New Mexico
The new anti-litter ditty you may have heard on the radio sounds a little bit like Devo’s 1980 classic “Whip It.”
It’s got a retro, feel-good vibe to it, and state Department of Transportation officials hope people hearing the jingle online or on the radio follow the tune’s advice when it comes to keeping the roads clean.
“Toss no mas!
“Throw it in the can!
“Keep our state clean!
“Don’t trash up the scene!”
If the theme seems familiar, that’s because the state Department of Transportion has revived a classic 1990s “Toss No Mas!” ad campaign Monday to increase awareness about an ugly blight — trash — overtaking the state’s highways and byways.
“One of the biggest complaints we have been receiving, complaints go through the roof, is all the litter people see on the sides of the roads,” said Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Sandoval during a news conference Monday.
It’s a problem that has plagued New Mexico, a state renowned for its natural beauty, for years. And it has only gotten worse during the coronavirus pandemic.
While cleanup crews still find the expected paper products, napkins, and fast-food bags on state roadways, they also are coming across trash associated with the pandemic: masks, gloves, personal protection equipment.
New Mexico’s notoriously high winds don’t help matters.
“We can clean up an area one day and within a coupe of days it looks like we have not been there,” Sandoval said.
Compounding the problem is the fact the
department could not rely on hiring state prisoners, who often help clean the roads, during the pandemic. Sandoval said his agency hopes to utilize those workers again in the fall.
In an effort to get New Mexicans to help, transportation department officials decided to reach back to a familiar campaign to energize them.
The “Toss No Mas” campaign originally was created in the 1990s by the advertising agency Cooney-Watson Productions. At that time, the state discovered trash was found every three feet on the state’s busiest highways.
Las Vegas, N.M. native and singer-songwriter Jim Terr wrote the original “Toss No Mas!,” a folksy ballad with an anti-litter public service message, while New Mexico singer-songwriter Michael Hearne sang the original tune.
The Transportation Department paid $600,000 for the new version of the ad campaign, said spokeswoman Marisa Maez. Though the new version has a zesty 1980s New Wave vibe, she said the older version was “very recognizable in the 1990s. I hope it makes a difference. I hope people stop and think about it.”
The department found the largest litter accumulations come from people not tying up their garbage bags, not picking up dropped debris or not covering, with tarps, their vehicular loads of trash.
“People throw trash in the back of a pickup truck and they drive out on the interstate and it blows out once they gain speed … eventually it flies away,” Sandoval said.
New words — “Tie it. Tarp it. Pick it up.” — have been incorporated into the song.
According to a news release issued by the Transportation Department Monday, those new words were suggested by a self-described “Trash Ninja” who lives in Abiquiú and organizes trash cleanup efforts.
Sandoval said his department spent $3.5 million on litter cleanup efforts in 2020.
He also used the news conference to also talk about some of the $601 million in road projects the department is involved in — 58 in all— with more coming, he said.
Those road projects including paving upgrades on the state’s two major highways — Interstates 25 and 40.
At least one big Santa Fe road project is planned as well, with $16.5 million committed to paving, lane widening, sidewalk and drainage work in the area near Santa Fe Indian School.
But talk of roadside trash dominated the news conference.
“It’s not a lot to ask, to ask somebody please throw your stuff away where it belongs, tie up your garbage bag … hang onto it in your car,” Maez said. “Litter is everybody’s problem.”