Go West, Unsightly Trash

I have no idea what this means but 9 of the 10 stretches of road on this list are east-west streets. Since this is a supplemental list, I suppose the original trashiest streets could be predominantly north-south.

I do wonder though, where does most of this trash come from. Is it all motorists throwing their wrappers and cups out the window? I can honestly say I hardly ever se that happen anymore. 30 years ago, yeah. But in recent decades I think almost everyone has recognized littering as the wrong thing to do.

I suppose a certain amount of it just blows in from trash cans and dumpsters from the surrounding area and collects in ditches and grassy areas along roads.

Then there’s the problem of late night (and often underage) beer drinkers discarding their empty cans, bottles and boxes. This group bugs me the most. Smashing glass bottles is particularly bad and dangerous. I realize these people don’t want to be caught with evidence of drinking in a vehicle and want to get rid of it as quickly as possible but please show some sort of responsibility.

I think there is almost a feeling of exemption for littering with alcohol products. A few years ago there was a party involving some young (of age, I think) people down the street a couple of houses. Parking extended down to the front of my house. No big deal except one the people parking in front of my place decided to dump an empty 12-pack box onto my lawn upon their arrival. Would they have done the same thing with their McDonald’s bag? I don’t think so. (By the way, that night I got into grumpy old man mode and went out, picked up the beer box, walked down the street and dumped it onto the lawn of the party-thrower.)

Finally, I can’t let this post pass without mentioning those who throw their cigarette butts on the ground. Butts that never, ever seem to go away (they aren’t biodegradable) unless someone else picks them up. You too are assholes.