Woodridge Spotlight on Litter...Get Involved

Can Town Hall Do Anything About This?

First, thank you to all of our new readers, and to the citizens who have started emailing in their pictures of litter/trash problems in our community.  The two pictures shared in this article were sent in by a concerned citizen who wants to see Woodridge putting its best foot forward.  If everyone does their part, we can greatly reduce or even eliminate litter in the area.  What can you do?

1.  If you know of a litter problem, take a picture or two and send it in to be featured as one of our litter pics of the day.  Send the pictures with a brief description of the location and problem to Tommy Trash Tracker.  

2.  We love stories with HAPPY ENDINGS...are you or a local group cleaning up an area that is in need of a sprucing up.  Send us your group's story and we will be more than happy to publish here in our blog!  Same email address as above.    

Is This What We Want People Seeing In Woodridge?

3.  Demand local enforcement of our litter control laws.  If you see a litter or garbage problem, call up your government officials, code enforcement officers, health department...any of these that has the ability to issue a citation should be notified of problem properties and areas.  Once citations are issued, make sure the local court is actually handing out fines...dismissing a litter citation is not the right direction to take...When citizens see that Woodridge is serious about littering, they will work harder to deal with their own trash streams, be it a business, a summer camp, or citizens using our parks as trash dumps.

4.  If you see someone littering, call them on it...a lot of our summer visitors unfortunately seem to feel they are above picking up after themselves and their children....especially at Krieger Park where almost nightly the playground area gets littered with trash.

5.  Clean up after yourselves...and if you are a camp or business and you are gathering up so much garbage around your containers that you cannot close the lids, then get a second container, or have it empty on a more frequent schedule...plastic bags of trash creates a health issue, and a rodent issue.

July 3rd Litter Factoid...Space, The Final Fronteer

At my age, still remember when man walked on the moon...fast forward some 40 plus years for today's factoid.  

Did you know that we humans have managed so far to litter outer space with over 18,000 pieces of space garbage (they only count and track pieces larger than four inches)?  That is a LOT OF SPACE JUNK, and maybe the various nations launching stuff into space need to come up with a Litter Control program for outer space.

If you count space litter of less than four inches, NASA estimates there are over 135 million pieces of man-made metal debris orbiting the Earth.  Seems anywhere man goes, litter follows...do your part, and pick up some litter every where you go.

Don’t Mess with Texas... Inside the Greatest Litter Campaign of All Time

Don’t Mess with Texas. To those of us who do not reside in the Lonestar State, this Texas motto is a cultural icon that attracts tourists and indicates state pride. But to those living in the great state of Texas, this motto is also representative of something much greater than a slogan on T-shirts and bumper stickers. Rather, “Don’t Mess with Texas” represents the most successful litter campaign of all time that continues to significantly reduce litter and keep the state of Texas beautiful.

In 1985, officials within the Texas Highway Commission and Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) faced a big problem. They were spending upwards of 20 million dollars annually to clean up litter from Texas highways, and the litter was increasing every year.  State officials realized that males between the ages of 18 and 35 were the most likely to litter, and sought to create a campaign to reduce litter that targeted their demographic. This is when the slogan “Don’t Mess with Texas” was born. Officials introduced the slogan to the TXDOT board in 1985, and luckily, the motto was approved, because it soon grew to be much more than a slogan to reduce litter on highways; it soon exploded into a cultural trademark.

First, bumper stickers with the motto were introduced in 1985. Then, the statewide advertising campaign was launched in 1986, which featured the motto “Don’t Mess with Texas” on large road signs adjacent to major highways and in television/radio/print advertisements and commercials. These commercials and Public Service Announcements featured numerous celebrities who were all Texas natives and the campaign soon became more popular and influential than anyone could have believed.

Within four years, the campaign reduced litter along Texas roadways by 72%. The advertising campaign, “Don’t Mess with Texas,” became a cultural phenomenon that would have lasting impacts for decades.  See, the campaign acts as a source of pride for residents of the Lonestar state and as a way for residents to join together to achieve something worthwhile. Even better, the campaign acts as an exemplar for other environmental campaigns of this caliber.  The state of Texas took one big problem, found one great solution, and made their state even greater as a result. The “Don’t Mess with Texas” campaign easily achieved it’s original objective of reducing litter among roadways in Texas and has kept litter off of Texas roads for 25 years with more to come. Other states facing similar problems should aspire to solve their environmental problems as smoothly, successfully, and as permanently as Texas did.

Author-Wendy Waste Reducer

Reducing Roadway Rubbish...Do Your Part

Each year, more than 51 billion pieces of litter land on U.S. roadways. The result is almost 11.5 billion dollars in annual cleanup costs, some of which comes directly from schools and other community organizations. 

The presence of litter in a community lowers quality of life and property values. From the road, it can be swept by weather, traffic and/or animals into gutters, lawns and local waterways.

Most people are less likely to litter when in their own community because they care about the quality of their own environment. It’s much more tempting, miles away from anyone or any place we know, to chuck that cigarette butt or empty bottle out the car window. But if you don’t litter in your own backyard, why litter in someone else’s?

Let’s face it, when we’re stuck on the highway for miles, we don’t want to keep looking at the garbage accumulating in the passenger seat. In fact, studies have shown that about 23% of Americans are likely to litter from their car.

So how can we manage our car trash and take control of our environmental impact?

1. Use a car litterbag. This can be as simple as attaching a plastic bag to your gear shift or a hook on the passenger side. However, many companies also produce litter containers for cars that hook onto the back of seats or virtually anywhere you’d like to place one.

You can find some of these litter bags here.

2. Use a car ashtray. In addition to car litter bags, many companies also make car ashtrays that fit inside a cupholder. By designating one of your cup holders as an ashtray, you can create a convenient place to chuck your cigarette butts besides out the window.

3. Make rest stops, trash-toss stops as well. When stopping for gas, food or a trip to the bathroom, take an extra few seconds to dump your litter bag contents into the garbage. Through making a trash run a part of rest stop routine, you can prevent the accumulation of car garbage and roadway litter.

85% of littering results from individual attitudes and 52% of roadway litter is caused by motorists.  By changing the way we think about litter and better managing our car garbage, we can make a huge impact on the cleanliness of our environment, the quality of our communities and the money we have to spend cleaning up other people’s messes.