Only You Can Prevent Idaho from Becoming a Trash Dump

I was running some errands when I saw dinner plates scattered along a street.  A few blocks later, I came across what looked to be printer paper scattered on the pavement.  At the grocery store, I stepped over the cigarette butts outside the door.

A typical day in southern Idaho

Look, seeing litter isn’t something new.  When I was in school 60 years ago, our teachers reminded us constantly of the need to pick up garbage.  On television, crying tribesmen reminded us we shouldn’t foul our own nest.

Here in Idaho, blowing trash is made worse by nearly constant strong winds.  Still, it doesn’t mean we need to accept the mess.

There's Not One Group to Blame

Much of what I’m seeing today is near new housing developments, and I assume people who live there aren’t tossing their trash into the air.  They want to maintain their manicured neighborhoods.  But the wind is the challenge.

It would be easy to blame some of the rubbish on newcomers to Idaho, and claim they came from places where people use the streets as open sewers.  That’s not fair.  When I see a beer box and empty cans in a ditch, I suspect that we’re talking about local people who don’t care.

We Can't Lock Them Up

Enforcement isn’t easy.  Deputies, police, and troopers have other priorities.  It would be a rare, calm day when they had time to pull over litterbugs and issue a ticket.

It’s just that we live in one of the loveliest places on the planet, and don’t we want to keep it that way?

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