Litter...

...And Simple Solutions!

Simple Solutions for Litter Prevention

If you routinely pick-up litter, you probably have noticed that the areas that you meticulously cleaned become polluted with litter again after a short time, especially in low-lying areas along waterways. Sadly, this is to be expected unless we all change our habits.  Picking-up the litter is absolutely critical, so it is very important that we all continue doing that, but the focus the rest of the time has to be on litter prevention.

As you pick up litter, you may have wondered how it got there.  Since litter travels downwind, downhill, and downstream, let’s consider where it comes from.  Yes, there are those that are irresponsible and throw trash out their car window or have a party in the woods and leave their trash behind, so let's add "downright intentional" to the litter travel list.  Beyond law enforcement action, we need to combat this shameful and unacceptable behavior through education as well as hands-on activities like cleanup events, where picking-up litter actually becomes a great littering deterrent, which is the mission of Semper Technology, Inc., the Cascades Green Team, and Keep Loudoun Beautiful.

But deliberate littering isn’t the only source.  It might surprise you, but carelessness is the other, even bigger source.  Municipal, commercial, and industrial carelessness includes construction sites, open-top dumpsters, and overflowing public trash cans.  Transportation-related carelessness includes light-weight items like soda cans and plastic bottles being blown out of a pickup truck bed or even the occasional mattress that blows off a car roof.

The primary residential carelessness is the open-top recycling tote, where light-weight items often blow out of these typically overflowing containers on recycling pickup day.  This is why single family homes in Cascades were given covered recycling totes and are freely available to town home residents, so if you don’t already use one, please do.

If you live in a community that does not offer covered recycling totes, feel free to contact us for suggestions on how to make that happen. In the meantime, consider making your own covered recycling tote by purchasing an inexpensive covered trash can from your favorite home improvement store and spray painting the recycle symbol on it. Here is a link to a stencil as well as tips on making it. This really works, so please take the initiative.

All of these forms of carelessness have one thing in common: improperly secured materials, equipment, trash, and recycling.  Together, we need to attack careless littering through education about the power of the wind and other environmental factors, which is the mission of Semper Technology, Inc., the Cascades Green Team, and Keep Loudoun Beautiful.

Collectively, we also promote simple lifestyle habits that make a huge difference in reducing our massive, growing litter problem, like:

•  Choosing durable, reusable products instead of disposable. Beware of labels that state "quick-and-easy" as this usually implies "disposable".
•  Choosing reusable beverage containers instead of bottled water or other bottled drinks.
•  Choosing reusable bags instead of disposable ones.

After all, there is zero risk of littering if zero trash is generated, even if that trash could be recycled.  Right?  Plus, by choosing to reuse, you will not only help the environment, you will be saving or even earning money in the process. As examples, Giant Food (here in Cascades) as well as Target will give you 5 cents back for each reusable bag you fill at the register, and Starbucks will give you 10 cents back and Caribou Coffee will give you 50 cents back on a drink if you bring you own beverage container – no-brainers, right?

Here’s another tip if you enjoy flavored or sport drinks…buy the mix and just add tap water.  Giant Food and other stores carry Gatorade or other drink mixes so you not only save a boatload of money over the bottled versions, you also get the convenience of mixing only what you need while helping the environment.

Okay, so you may be wondering where all the litter would go if you didn’t take the time to pick it up.  Have you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?  If you plug this into your favorite search engine, you will see hundreds of articles and pictures, but here’s one that’s worth reading: http://backyardxscapes.com/blog/?p=275.  Here’s an article about an Atlantic Garbage Patch (http://www.earthportal.org/news/?p=3437) and one about disposable bags (http://www.nomorebaggage.org/facts.php).  Pretty heavy reading, but we all need an environmental wake-up call regarding our insatiable appetite for everything disposable in our quest for “convenience”.  Choosing to use a reusable bottle, like the ones that Keep Loudoun Beautiful or Semper Technology gives out, instead of bottled water and choosing to use a reusable shopping bags instead of disposable ones are small steps with a huge impact, that’s why we give them out at our events…to make it easy for you to do the right thing.  Remember that every time you choose to reuse, you are making a difference.  That’s why this statement is printed on our reusable bottles, and something to be proud of.

In the US alone, we consume around 30 billion disposable plastic bottles and around 30 billion disposable plastic bags each year.  So in the time it takes you to read this Web page, around 1.2 million disposable bottles and bags were needlessly consumed.  Unbelievable, right?  If you stand outside of your favorite warehouse store for a few minutes and watch the steady stream of bottled water cases come out the door, you can get a feel for this astronomical number.  Same thing if you stand outside grocery stores or a regional mall for a few minutes and observe the hundreds of disposable plastic bags come out the doors, often half empty.

The great news is that, with your help, we can reverse this trend and win the war on unnecessary waste, which not only reduces or eliminates litter, but also reduces our consumption of natural resources and energy.  By you demonstrating that you can actually survive and even thrive without bottled water or disposable plastic bags, others around you will take notice and perhaps change their habits.  This is called “leading by example”.  What a positive message you will be sending to your family, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, coworkers, and even total strangers.

Lastly, please remember that every day is a Trash Bash day.  If you see litter along a street or path or stuck in a bush and it isn’t too disgusting, please pick it up if it is safe to retrieve and dispose of it responsibly.  Not only would you be making a difference, somebody may see you caring and become inspired to care as well.  You never know.  If you see deliberate or careless littering, please report the infractions to authorities since litter is not only ugly and terrible for our planet, it’s also illegal in Loudoun County, VA and most other jurisdictions.

For more information about our environmental programs and projects, please contact us.

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