Thread: Frosty Wooldridge: Trashing America...Litter Everywhere

Trashing America...Litter Everywhere - Part 1

By Frosty Wooldridge
11-21-11

When the European settlers hit Plymouth Rock in 1620, North America presented newcomers with pristine wilderness, pure water, fresh air and endless top soil for growing food. Across America, anyone could drink from every lake, river or stream without fear of being poisoned. Not one speck of litter of any kind dotted what was to become the United States of America, Mexico and Canada.

Today, in 2011, plastic, glass, rubber, chemicals, metal, paper, oil, gasoline and a growing number of contaminants cover North America. We Americans inject over 80,000 chemicals into the air, land and water 24/7. We toss our trash into rivers, lakes and streams 24/7. We litter the highways with so many booze bottles that driving into the setting sun can blind a driver from the reflected glass in Arizona. We leave old farm equipment, mobile homes and garbage in every nook and cranny of America. I estimate into the billions.

Millions upon millions of Americans have dumped roofing materials, cars, plastics, paints, chemicals, Styrofoam, tires, soiled baby diapers and other debris of every description into pristine forests, beautiful lakes and into every river on this continent.

Ten years ago, I canoed the Mississippi River. During my journey, I filled two bags of trash every day from Lake Itasca, Minnesota down to New Orleans. I saw tractors, cars, sofas, tires, blankets, oil cans and an endless line of glass, aluminum and plastic containers tossed into Old Man River. It disgusted me beyond comprehension. When I wrote a commentary for the Minneapolis-Star Tribune to encourage the Boy and Girl Scouts, Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Clubs to sponsor massive clean-ups of the 642 miles of the river in Minnesota, they wouldn't print the 600 word op-ed. When I wrote a 200 word letter to the editor, they would not publish that, either. When I asked the publisher to support a 10 cent deposit/return law like Michigan's highly successful law-they wouldn't publish that, also. In other words, they love living in litter and they don't give a "dam" about the Mississippi River or the wildlife along it.

It's incredible the industrial and manufacturing forces in this country that will do everything they can to deter any kind of recycling laws in this country. I call it the "Peter Coors Factor" of Coors Beer, which I will discuss later.

As a youth, my dad charged my siblings and me with this rule, "Always leave a place better than you found it when you go camping, hiking or swimming." To this day, I have picked up over a half million pieces of trash. But it doesn't do any good because billions of people toss their trash from the Arctic to Antarctica. When I lived and worked in Antarctica, workers at McMurdo threw their trash, too. I picked it up.

If you drive your car along I-70 west of Denver, Colorado, and you stop on the up and down ramps, both east and westbound of exit 254, (Where you get off for Buffalo Bill's Grave and where you can see the live buffalo herd.)-you will see my six signs, "Please keep the scene cleanrespect the land and its beautyplease take your trash to the next fuel-up." But every two weeks, I walk over 400 yards of rest area and pick up two bags of trash from truckers and automobile drivers. They stop on those ramps, read my signs, and toss their trash. (By the way, thanks goes to the trucker who dropped two $20.00 bills this past Saturday because I found them and will use them to pay for more plastic bags. Thanks for the pleasant surprise.)

In reality, North America has become a giant trash dump. If you travel through the South, you will see countless plastic bags tossed alongside the country roads, rivers and highways. You'll see old homes and mobile homes rotting everywhere along with the highways and river banks. You'll see dumps in old towns along the highway. You'll see homes with trash piled up in their yards. I've pedaled my bicycle three times across the south and quite frankly, it's sickening-especially at 15 miles per hour and endless miles of junk laying everywhere along the routes I traveled.

But don't let the Northeast, Northwest or Southwest think their citizens are any better. West Virginia suffers horrible trash and cars tossed over the river banks and everywhere in those beautiful mountains. Fast food cups, spoons, tissues, wrappers and plastic bags from every McDonalds, Subways, Domino's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, Jack in the Box and so many more dot the landscape in every corner of America.

It's like everyone "looks" beyond the abandoned oil derricks, old tractors, burned out houses and empty mobile homes. In many towns in New Mexico, junk lines the main street as old tractors, burned out cars and worse. I would mutter to myself, "How can people live like this?" One man I asked said, "They're just used to it."

In this series, you're going to see the ugliness of American citizens, corporate leaders, fast food corporations, oil companies and above all-beverage companies. You'll find out that they don't care about the trashing of America and you'll find out how Peter Coors of Coors Beer undermined Colorado voters to stop the recycling laws. He's not alone.

You will find out how the lone state of Michigan provides the best leadership with 10 cent deposit laws (5 cents doesn't cut it in ME, NH, CN, OR and WA because it's not enough financial incentive) and how the Wolverine State became the finest state in the Union to keep its containers from littering the land.

Additionally, you're invited to visit http://www.pickupamerica.com on their two year 3,600 mile trash picking journey across America. Please donate your time or money in their efforts as they speak to communities, schools and church groups to educate our youth and all citizens.

Pick Up America is the brainchild of 25-year-old Jeff Chen and 26-year-old Davey Rogner who are self-proclaimed "pick up artists." Thus far, their crews along with volunteers have picked up 132,000 pounds of trash. Please realize that they are picking up trash on only one road across America.

"Baltimore, there was a lot of liquor bottles ... you notice these trends," said Chen. "The Eastern Shore of Maryland is always going to be known to us as the home of Natty Light drinkers. The Western Shore of Maryland is ... Bud Light drinkers."

"You notice people drink lots of Pepsi and Coke products," Rogner said. "In Virginia, it's all Mountain Dew; that continued pretty much through Ohio."

We must ask ourselves as a country, with the projected addition of 100 million people by 2035, do we want the commensurate trash that will come with those numbers. We must implement financially based incentive laws for recycling. What are your ideas for that? Send them to me.

One man said, "This is the best way to explore America. I didn't know that America was so polluted."

Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents - from the Arctic to the South Pole - as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents "The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it" to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715

http://www.rense.com/general95/trash.htm

I know the feeling on a smaller scale. At work, some of the staff leave their garbage in the vans and don't pick up behind themselves. Same at the center. Like card board boxes, when done, why don't they just take them out to the dumpster? I get tired of picking up behind lazy people. I shouldn't have to do it, but I can't stand the mess, so I take it upon my self to clean it up when I can.

I'll never forget one time back in the late 90's driving thru a parking lot and seeing a woman in a Beemer open her car door and dump a huge itray of fast food right in the middle of the parking lot.

The arrogance - It made me sick.

Trashing America - Readers Respond

By Frosty Wooldridge
11-22-11

In Part 1 of Trashing America, I covered the obvious littering of America in many forms. As the series continues, you will read about other litter that you can't see, but is even more dangerous than the litter you can see.

Nonetheless, the piece hit a cord of discontent. Here are some of the responses from more than 100 reader responses:

"I am 75 years of age, but I always keep my yard and garden mowed, trimmed and clean. I plant a vegetable garden in my back yard every summer. People come along and steal from it, while marauding, unsupervised kids and teenagers pick my unripe apples, plums, berries and grapes and throw them at each other. Oh, what fun! I have gone outside and kindly offered to give them fruit if they leave it until it becomes ripe, just knock on my door and ask for a sack. But they give me the middle finger. Every day, people drive by and throw their trash, plastic bottles, McDonald's wrappers and bags in my yard, and I have to clean it up. Yes, people are horrible slobs. Why? Because moms and dads quit teaching morals, values, principles and ethics a long time ago. They are out working to satisfy their insatiable desire for Chinese crap that they can use as future litter.

"When my kids were small (back in the 60s), we lived at the beach in So. CA. At the time, there was a deposit on soda bottles. They made all their spending money picking up bottles and returning them to the stores. Today, my son (age 52) is a greens keeper at a golf course here in Illinois. Of course, when fall arrives, the golf courses close, so he takes to the streets and roads and earns money picking up cans and selling them. Just think, if all the millions of unemployed Americans on unemployment compensation would get off their duffs, they could clean up America in no time at all." Ruth P. Fairfield, IL

"Just read your most recent NWV article, part 1, and couldn't agree more with you. America is being trashed by gluttony filled Americans. Their behavior will never end. In my neighborhood in Maricopa County, AZ (Mesa), there are homes that look like open landfills, with garbage of every description. When you call the County to complain, there is never enough personnel to send out to inspect the complaint and the situation grows worse.

"I have been down to the Arizona Border, from Douglas, to Nogales, to Yuma and the trash piles left by Illegal Aliens boggles the mind. It is estimated that just in Arizona, Illegal's alone have deposited hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic, clothing, shoes, knapsacks, food containers, human waste and much more over many years. Some of this debris has been there for so long that it is covered by desert, grass and undergrowth and is 6 feet high. Washes, once used to channel what little rain water we get to natural growth areas are no clogged and essentially useless. If people needed to have a national monument that displays our lack of guardianship to the land....we could sell postcards all day long, every day....just to prove that we've been there, seen it and done that. As always, keep up the good work that you do. Warmest regards, Michael B. Douglas, AZ

"Sir - regarding your commentary on roadside trash, I returned from Germany after seven years, in late '89, to my house in Fayetteville, N.C. After living in the very clean Bavarian countryside for so many years, I had forgotten what a trash heap Fayetteville was. I was appalled and saddened as my wife and I drove back to our house. The roadside was littered with beer bottles and cans, McDonald's bags and like items. Every few months some lady would write a letter to the local newspaper lamenting the trashy roadsides. I felt like writing a letter in reply to inform people that the appearance of a neighborhood, town or city was a direct reflection on the quality of the people who live there. As a Special Forces soldier and later as a civilian, I have worked in sub-Saharan Africa and I know, all too well, that for Africans, the roadside and countryside is their trash can. Fayetteville is half minority. To those who might call me "racist", I am just an engineer and engineers, being applied scientists, rely on facts and analysis. I have recently moved to Maine. The area is almost completely European. The trash on the roadside is minimal.

"As you may be aware, a lesson of history is that whenever an advanced civilization imports primitive peoples into their society, they have just signed the death warrant for their own civilization. This is happening all over Europe as well. All empires die and all for the same reasons. Our empire is dead and the corpse is starting to stink. Perhaps a Phoenix will rise from the ashes." Frank N. Maine

"Good article and again on target. While out skiing in the past years I have often see parents and kids tossing their junk on the ground and on the ski runs. I went up and asked one guy "Hey why not just put the garbage in the can that is sitting 5 FEET from you and got a big F U in my face as he skied away. People are lazy slobs and I am sure their house must be a disaster. I picked up and put it in the can and tried to set an example. People have lost their sense of pride and responsibility for themselves and their country. Guess I come from a different background. My parents would have given me swift kick in the butt had I done such things. Courtesy and consideration have been thrown out the window with many in this country. It is time for a change." Barry M. Chicago, IL

"Good morning Frosty. Your article about trashing America hit home with me. We live in Branson, MO, which receives about eight million visitors a year. The amount of trash along the roadways in our area is appalling. The state and county has a program where minimal risk prisoners pick up trash along the highways. Three days later one cannot even tell the trash has been picked up. Just last week the state was completing the final mowing of the right of ways. The amount of paper trash thrown by the mowers multiplied. What is our great country coming to? Is there no pride anymore?" Glen A. MO
"I recently moved to Vicino, Napoli, Italy and talk about trash, OMG. The Italiano mafia controls the trash pickup around here and it is a total mess.

"Now I live in a beach bungalow north east of Napoli and I go out at least every other day and pick up at least two big trash bags each round and I have only gotten 50 yards in either direction. To aid my activities I built a sort of wheel barrow (that will roll on sand) from trash mostly found on the beach - 2 thirteen inch rimless tires (used plywood wood for rims), and a blue plastic 50 gal drum someone had cut in half and left on the beach. It works nicely so I can now carry more than twice as much.

"The trash on the beach in addition to what you might expect like soft drink containers, aluminum cans (yep no recycling here) and tires? Medical waste (three syringes yesterday), and everything people flush down the toilet like Q-Tips, crotch swatches and everything else because the stuff going to the outfall is not filtered . . . Ohime!"
Bjorno da Castel, Volturno, Italia

Their responses show that people do care. I hope to propose a national law on 10 cent deposit-return law that will give enough financial incentive to create a 99 percent recycle impact on all plastic, cans, glass and other containers.

http://www.rense.com/general95/trshmge.htm

Crotch swatches?!? Oh my, that's new...