Watauga Democrat
Friday, September 6, 2002
09/06/2002 By John O'Dowd
Aside from a sense of community involvement and concern, perhaps one of the most helpful and practical things to come out of the MountainKeepers' breakfast to address litter in Watauga County was a promise by Watauga County District Court Judge Bill Leavell to reduce the state's litter statutes to "plain English."
After finishing that Herculean task Leavell promised to send the "translation" to the newspapers with a plain-English explanation of what citizens can do to help enforce the statutes.
The MountainKeepers, with biscuits and the fixin's provided by Hardee's restaurants, hosted a community breakfast on Wednesday to gather business, civic and community leaders and discuss the ways and means of handling a growing county problem Ñ trash on the roadways, in the neighborhoods and fields.
The breakfast followed fast on official notice of the problem and the need for solutions.
At the meeting of the Watauga County commissioners on Tuesday, the commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution submitted by MountainKeepers designating September as " Stop the Litter Month."
The breakfast room was decorated with color photographs of roadside trash throughout the county. Nancy Reigel, the photographer, said that examples of the litter problem were not hard to find; she just drove around the county with her camera.
Ron Redmon, acting as master of ceremonies and discussion facilitator at the breakfast, asked each of the full tables in the Agricultural Center Conference Room to address the reasons for litter in the county and what steps could be taken to correct the growing problem.
Participants listed the reasons for a littering attitude that included: someone else will clean it up; underage drinkers " getting rid of the evidence" there are no real consequences to littering; and people are just lazy. Practical concerns included the lack of easy access to dump sites for large " white goods" items like stoves and refrigerators and the need for expanded and publicized hours at the transfer station and " green box" collection points.
Once the attitude problems were identified, Redmon requested suggestions for solutions.
Suggestions to deal with the litter problems ran from the humorous (the return of public stockades, the shooting of litterers and fingerprinting the trash to track down the offenders) to the serious and practical.
Mike Maybee, president of Watauga Opportunities, suggested the passage of a state bottle and can deposit law. He said that the passage of a law that requires the collection of a deposit on each bottle and can sold and the repayment of that deposit when the can or bottle is returned cleaned up most of the roadside litter in his home state of Iowa.
"I now see less litter driving across the state of Iowa then I do driving across Watauga County," Maybee said. "To change behavior you need incentives. If people are not throwing out the can or bottle they won't throw out the wrappers."
For those still inclined to throw cans and bottles out of the windows, the deposit law will provide its own cash incentive for others to clean up the roadside.
A number of the table groups recommended " character education" in the county schools to impress on the students at an early age the harm of litter on the environment and beauty of the area.
At a table occupied by businessmen Hanes Boren, Jodey Eller and Dan Meyer, County Commissioner Jack Lawrence and County Manager Rocky Nelson, it was agreed that laws were not the answer. "You have to change the mind set of a society that views everything as disposable," Meyer said.
One suggestion from the crowd was to contact the source of much of the litter (restaurants and packagers) and request that they take more responsibility for the packaging by including anti-litter messages prominently on bags and boxes.
Most practical suggestions centered around public education at both the school and adult level to involve the community in cleanups and prevention. Additional suggestions included asking the churches and congregations for help and the frequently suggested option of strictly enforcing existing laws.
Like an old time camp meeting, Redmon asked if individuals or groups would be willing to make a personal or group commitment to the issue of litter.
Maybee offered to research the deposit laws.
Auto dealers and retailers offered to get in touch with other retailers and auto dealers to solicit their help. Richard DeMott offered to get the Watauga River Partners more involved in community education on the effects of trash on the rivers and streams. Several participants offered to help review county regulations and ordinances as well as transfer station and green box issues.
Pastor Jim Darnell offered to ask his congregations "to help keep trash off of God's land"
The MountainKeepers' president, Mike Evans, announced an Environmental Expo to be held at the Boone Mall on Nov. 2, the fall "Litter Sweep," a community cleanup running Sept. 16 through the 29th and the " Big Sweep," river and stream cleanup scheduled for Sept. 21.
The MountainKeepers promised more meetings to track progress, provide help and suggestions and solicit comments from the participants and the community.