On a recent mild February afternoon, my husband and I walked the 1.1 miles from our house down to the end of Unionville road. We walk this rural stretch fairly often in all seasons. Occasionally we’ll walk the whole 3+ mile country block. Woods and fields line the road. Deer & eagles are prevalent, with a chance of turkeys. In the spring & summer, frogs plop into the roadside ditches as we pass.
On this occasion, I was inspired to bring along an empty 40 lb bird seed bag and our “gribbygrab” (the pinchy tool on a stick, commonly used as an aid for reaching stuff). Wowsers! We only were able to clean up about 95% of the litter before our bag was filled to overflowing. My husband had to lug it the mile back to our house. In the trash roundup quest, I tested out my relatively new knees by jumping back & forth across the rain-filled roadside drainage ditches ( with an occasional assist from Ken).
Did you know that plastic straws take 200 years to decompose, & plastic bottles average 450 years in the open, & up to 1,000 years in a landfill? Even then, they don’t go away. They just decompose into microplastic particles. Our lovely desecrated roadsides- it’s a shame, littering is! (an actual crime also)
I separated the litter out, and put what was recyclable into our bins to take to town later. On our road, the favored litter seems to be comprised mostly of the little plastic liquor bottle nips, beer cans (rarely of any good taste- I suspect that most craft beer drinkers don’t tend to throw trash on the roads, nor drink in their vehicles), Macdonald’s plastic soda cups, complete with straws & lids- none of which are made of 1 or 2 recyclable plastic, and Gatorade plastic bottles.
It’d be great to have a ban on single-use plastic bags, now being voted on in Annapolis! Several of us were there last Monday to lobby in support of the bill. Who is not tired of seeing these bags hanging from our trees, littering our fields, yards, & everywhere the wind blows?
In the future, we will all have to reduce our dependence on plastic. Plastics did not become a mainstream part of our world until the 1960s, post WWll economy. Us baby boomers remember plastic combs, toothbrushes, & the wonder of the whole Tupperware party gig. Companies will have to take ownership of their packaging and pay the price or pass it on to us. We should vote for a bottle, can, & plastic redemption laws, as many states have in place. I did get money back for our bottles at a redemption center this summer, while in Maine.
Meanwhile, don’t litter, just say “no thank you” to straws, recycle & reuse what you can, & bring your own mugs, & containers. Vote for the environment, & encourage your elected officials to do so as well!
I wish you litter-free strolls in our fine county!
Bobbie Wells
Talbot County
Martha Sikes says
Bobbie: I am very moved by your Letter to the Editor and hope that you will join our “team” that will be picking up trash along Unionville Road, Tunis Mills Road and Todd’s Corner Road on April 11. We are your neighbors and our teams actually picked up trash along these roads in August, November and January. And how discouraging that the day after spending two hours, nine people, picking up bags and bags of trash — to see overnight the roads once again being littered. Actually The Spy twice published our picture with helpers and mounds of trash bags. ShoreRivers has been helping coordinate our teams and has provided the bags, pick up tools, gloves and vests and made arrangements for the county to pick up the garbage bags and haul them away. Please contact Rebecca Murphy, Education and Volunteer Coordinator for ShoreRivers at 443-385-0511, ext. 217 or Marty Sikes at 410-822-9230 if you would like to join us in keeping our neighborhood litter free.
Dan Watson says
Clean Stream Day is April 4th, and ShoreRivers, among others, will be sponsoring some community clean-ups. Keep your eyes open for more information, and JOIN IN!
Thx Bobbie and Ken for showing the way!
Kelley Moran says
Great piece, Bobbie — we can all do more to reduce our use of plastics of all kinds — I support banning single use plastic bags as well. I do have an observation to add to your comment about the difference between those who have been tossing beer cans out of their windows and craft beer drinkers– that is, I know many craft beer drinkers who do great damage to our environment as well – through different practices. Over consumption, purchasing higher priced foods packaged in non-recyclable single containers –or looking for bargains at Aldi– though I save money I also am buying peppers pre-packaged in plastic, etc…. We all have bad habits that contribute to various forms of litter, even when not tossing cans out of cars, and even craft beer drinkers. Thank you for your excellent piece — and thank you especially for picking up all that litter on your walk with your new knees! You are a role model.
alice sewell says
I am a beer drinker, and because I walk a country mile every morning, I see the kinds or beer cans that are thrown from vehicles. They are often the kinds of beers that I drink. You know, the NOT OF GOOD TASTE ones. I am a bit insulted that the writer assumes one must have inferior tastes to do such things. It ain’t so. Some of us simply never developed a taste for Craft Beers, and should it matter, my husband and I are avidly recycle.