Columnist

Putting a stop to roadside waste

If we are serious about trying to remove litter from our highways, we will have to face the reality that all the harping about it hasn't really made a dent in the amount of litter that make our roadsides an eyesore. Of course many Arkansans don't give a damn, and just as long as it's possible to drive down a road without ruining a tire, litter is not a problem.

You and I know better. But if it is a matter of dollars, then how do we get those dollars to stop the littering?

I'm an expert on what makes up the litter along our roadsides, since at least three times a week I walk or sometimes jog around three miles on Arkansas streets and highways. It's really a no-brainer to come up with a No. 1: one-use drinking containers. Beer cans, Styrofoam drinking cups, and plastic bottles are easily the top of the litter pyramid.

I'm not trying to re-invent the wheel, because numerous states have already put laws in place to make tossing a beer bottle out the window of a pickup hit you in the pocketbook.

I'm promoting a law that all beverages be in returnable bottles or in reusable containers. It wouldn't just be beer bottles; it would be all beverage containers, and these containers would require a deposit.

You might remember back in the 1950s when some drink bottles had a return deposit. When we were in college, Vertis and I picked up bottles around the trash pile at the trailer park where we lived and turned them in. This is not just a 2023 idea.

That would not only cut down on the beer cans and soft drink cans; it would drastically cut down on Styrofoam soft drink cups. A number of states have already taken that step, and several have banned Styrofoam.

However, mandating all drinks be in returnable-for-deposit bottles is not going to happen anytime soon. Our Legislature is going to stay up in the bad high 40s category of states with lax environmental laws, and our roadsides will stay looking as if a trash truck on its way to the landfill had wrecked.

But I'm really just scratching the surface. I noticed Walmart stores in Colorado are now discontinuing free plastic or free paper bags. "Coming soon to a Walmart near you." If you had to pay 10 cents or 25 cents for a paper bag, would you consider bringing a reusable bag? I don't have a clue if Arkansas Walmarts will soon charge for bags, but I think they will someday.

However, we are all guilty of contributing to not only roadside waste, but waste in general, especially plastic. If you seriously look at our shopping and throwaway habits, it's easy to see we are a wasteful nation.

Vertis and I are making a small difference--not just bringing reusable bags to the store, but trying to live a more responsible life. This past week we were dining at lunch, and when we ordered iced tea, we requested either glass or reusable plastic glasses. It wasn't a problem, and we have now begun to try to refuse any one-use serving items when eating out.

We are also trying to quit over-packed products. Consider a simple purchase; thousands of products are in containers in a box, and then as you check out, the container in a box is placed in a sack. It's called over-packing.

Multiply that by several millions each day, and you will understand our wasteful society. It takes energy to produce those useless boxes and sacks, and the reduction in energy use is a key to reducing climate change.

Why should we care? Well, it's a fact that our wasteful habits are something that the much of the world can't have, because there are limited resources available to live like we do. We won't do much serious changing until the dollars it costs to continue our wasteful living become larger.

Will we see such erratic weather that the few tornadoes we get are multiplied by 10 or 20 or 30? Would we care if widespread tornadoes became commonplace? If we have extreme weather, where dozens of our towns are almost completely destroyed by tornadoes, would that get our attention? Did California, suffering from a drought, expect to get over a year of rain in two weeks?

As the Arctic and Antarctic continue to warm faster than the rest of the planet (an absolute fact) the only thing we can be sure of will be erratic off-the-charts weather caused by disrupted polar vortexes, and every part of our planet will be affected. Records of severe weather events will become history as the planet becomes steadily warmer, and we will have to spend billions upon billions to stabilize the Earth's climate.

It's pay now, or pay more later.

Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.

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