Road being used as makeshift dump

[buckeyefarmer]

In our area we have a program called "clean sweep", which is a community service / fund raiser that kids do. kids get pledges to help clean up trash, and their service group gets to keep the funds. government provides trash bags, and they come later and pick up the full bags. Our boy scouts participates. every year we pick up hundreds of bags of trash. Couple yrs ago we did about 1 mile along a road in a national park. unbelievable what had been thrown over the hill, many tires to a refrigerator...

 

[Redbug]

Thanks for the tip on the tire serials. I did not know that! Yes, I have picked up a number of tires and disposed of them. I will do a further Google search and learn more about the serial number system. Hopefully, there's a way to track the slobs down, next time.

 

[jimmyj]

I guess any of us who lives in a rural area has this problem. Once I can afford one, I'm going to put a game camera on the ditch to see what I get.

I used to mow the wide ditch area (more of a swayle) and I have stopped and now let the roadside weeds and grass grow really high. When I mowed it just attracted parked cars and junk like a magnet. We once had a murder about 50 miles from here and the killer dumped his clothes in our ditch! How's that for creepy! (Although the body was a mile away so thank heavens that was not at our place). I remember that summer confronting a suspicious looking guy walking down the side of our road. Gulp! Wonder if it was him.

I think the IR cameras are going to be a great tool for us in years to come.

 

[MarkV]

I live on a rural road where most in the area have lived for generations. They don't care for us outsiders coming in to "ruin" their country setting. It is amazing the amount of trash that gets pitched out the windows of passing pick-ups. I've never understood their passion for their country setting yet lack of concern for the trash they toss. It just seems so contradictory love the country and then fill the ditches with fast food rappers. Of course it just may be me because I would not marry my cousin either.

MarkV

 

[tallyho8]

My peeve is that the local tire stores charge the mandated disposal fee per tire and then they add their own "service charge" to take your old tires. Many people save the service fee by taking their old tires and dumping them off down the road.

 

[jinman]

In the city of Grand Prairie, TX where I used to live, they allow two free pickup loads to the dump per month when you bring your water bill. I believe there is an extra surcharge for tires and they don't take paint. Annually in the spring, they have a cleanup campaign where you can bring old paint, insecticides, and herbicides for free disposal. I believe tires are $1 each and batteries are not taken. Even with all this free or low-fee disposal, there is one road that catches lots of shingles, tires, appliances, and furniture on one blind corner where trees and brush hide the perps while allowing them to see oncoming lights.

Recently, my wife went with the grandkid's school to a zoo in Dallas. They stopped at a park in Grand Prairie for lunch. The playground equipment was surrounded with soft ground up rubber from old tires. She said you would expent it to leave residues on the kids, but it was clean and the perfect material for the playground equipment. This is a great way to recycle in my opinion. That material is probably safer than plain old dirt or sand.

On our county road, it's about 1-1/2 miles long with no outlet. One of our neighbors just moved away because he was caught and fined for raising wolves. Wouldn't you know it? Suddenly the amount of trash on the sides of our roads was cut in half overnight. There's always a reason to celebrate when people move. Some when they move in and some when they move out.

 

[Ridgewalker]

My land has 4/10ths of a mile of state highway frontage, it's beautiful, all huge whiteoaks and tall shortleaf pines, a few big boulders, etc. I walk it with sunflower seed bags every month. I usually fill at least 2 bags...the usual junk.

Since we are on the subject, you know what really T's me off? Seeing someone toss a cigarette butt out their window at a stoplight or going down the road.

 

[Chuck52]

It's about time for me to clean up my road frontage. It's only a few hundred feet, but I always collect at least one big bag of stuff. Lots of beer cans and bottles, but always the cheap beers. This year there doesn't seem to be quite as much as the last yew years. That might be because we had a lot of construction down the road from us before the down turn hit. There was lots of construction debris, like concrete bags and such. I suspect that really did blow off trucks. However, the number of beer containers is down, too, so I would guess the construction workers were relaxing on their way home. I'll have to make myself a good nail stick so I can avoid some of the bending, but it's also handy when one comes to the do-I-really-want-to-touch-that stuff.

Chuck

 

[JRobyn]

Dumping has been a problem around us in TN. It used to be MUCH worse. A few years back, someone got the sherriff's attention about one particularly bad dump spot, and he stopped to look at it. Found a pizza box in some of the trash. Did you know that your name and address are coded onto the pizza box when it's delivered? It was all the sherriff needed. The judge gave the perp his choice of sentences; 30 days in jail, $x thousand (I forgot) fine, or clean up the entire dump site. Of course the perp chose the latter. Word got around fast.

- Jay

 

[kthompson]

For most trash I think our county in SC does a good job. Other than the fast food trash and beer cans and bottles. I miss the bottles with deposits.