A buddy and I were talking the other day about how much litter we see all the time laying on the side of the roads. Whether we’re in town or on the Interstate highway or somewhere in-between, there is always somebody out there who thinks it’s okay to throw their trash out onto the ground. Why are people so rude? Didn’t their parents teach them about good manners and picking up after themselves?

Okay, in town maybe there are people who need to get better trash cans that are less able to be spilled or turned over by dogs and raccoons and the like. Before I got switched over to the city’s large automatic bin garbage collection system, I had a regular old 33 gallon can that had handles that locked down onto the lid. People who use cans without lid locks may unknowingly be creating litter in their neighborhood while their can sits out unattended overnight or during the morning hours while they’re away at work.

Your neighborhood or town or county or state could very well have an organized litter prevention program. That’s great, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to reduce the occurrence of littering unless we all get involved. My county has a program called Keep Brevard Beautiful. They’ve actually set up a litter hotline, where you can call in as soon as you witness someone throwing trash out of their vehicle or whatever. The number is *KBB on your Cingular cell phone or 321-537-6801.

Okay, so the only way this sort of program is going to do any good is if we all put these numbers into our cell phones contact lists where we can easily find them when we need them! So stop reading this right now and go find out how you can report littering in your area and go put the numbers into your cell phones!

Don’t even get me started on cigarette butts. I mean, just because cigarette butts are tiny little things, does that mean they’re not trash? No! They are trash! Get yourself an ashtray. I see so many people tossing cigarette butts out their car windows while I’m driving around town or to and from work it makes me sick. Everybody around here knows it’s a fire hazard too because they talk about it on the news a lot, but even that doesn’t stop people from tossing out their butts. It’s ridiculous.

Of course a reporting system is a good idea, but enforcement and giving out fines is hard when there is no tangible proof of the offense. But hey, with the popularity of cell phones with cameras these days, maybe that tangible proof is now easy to acquire! My local KBB program actually has an email address that we can send information to. So if I take a photo or video of someone littering, I can call in the offense or I can email the photo or video to my local program. That’s great! Of course, technically the offender cannot be charged unless the offense is witnessed directly by an officer. But I still like the idea of sending in a photo or video of the offense in order to solidify the case.

So please do your part by not littering in the first place, but also by reporting littering when you witness it.

Kurt