litter in Maryland ugh!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never noticed this. Where are you driving?

Southern Maryland

That's a poor area. You are comparing a poor area to a rich area like NoVa? If I drive around poor parts of VA will I see litter on the roads? Yes, I will.

You are aware Calvert is one of the richest counties in the U.S. right? Charles and St. Mary's also have high degrees of wealth. WTF are you even talking about?

This. The poster who implied its a "poor area" doesn't know what they're talking about.

What? lol no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two things:

1. Hearing people ask, why doesn't anybody do anything about this? is somewhat exasperating. Trash does accidentally fly out of people's cars, sometimes they don't see it happen. I try to do some plogging. If we all did a little plogging occasionally, the place could look much better.

2. Contact the county council about the litter issue. The county is a hot mess right now. Some of the littered areas are not safe for plogging and the county needs to send a truck to get this stuff up. I'm sure all the budgets are cut due to covid, but this is also a public health issue. The council only cares about issues that they think constituents care about, so let them know.

That is an unfair criticism, IMO.

I’ve done park cleanups, etc but even we have asked this sometimes. As in, why doesn’t the county do something about the people leaving tires in on the Rock Creek trail? There has to be somewhere that people are coming in with tires. Can’t they set up a camera? Or a camera at the exit ramps where there is an non sane amount of trash?

Sure, occasionally there is trash flying out a car window. But a paint can?? Typewriters? Furniture? Entire McDonald’s bags? And the trash on Rock Creek trail isn’t accidentally flying out of windows. Or the trash at the Wheaton Woods basketball courts/soccer fields (for example). There are people playing sports there who just leave tons and tons of water bottles/beer bottles on the fields.

There has to be something more we can do, versus just getting out there to pick up other people’s trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of the litter blows off the recycling trucks or blows out of bins in the neighborhoods before pick-up. It accumulates in fall and winter when there is less mowing (and either pre-mowing clean-up or mowing over the trash...) It's not always from people being jerks and just dumping trash out their windows onto the road.

In MoCO, our trash guys are actually pretty good about that. They even sometimes send out someone behind the trash/recycling trucks to make sure it’s not a mess! I’ve seen the lady come by in her pick up truck checking on trash cans, etc.

I wouldn’t blame the trash/recycling guys.

I live in Aspen Hill and I have straight up seen people stop at a stop light, open their car door and just toss their trash out. McDonalds bags and DD cups. Plus water bottles. Water bottles everywhere.

There are plenty of people who think it’s appropriate to toss their trash out the car door/window.

I've seen this myself several times. Every time it's been a truck with guys going to or from a job site. It's not their neighborhood and they just don't care. I once saw a guy toss a can of paint out of the truck onto the side of the road! If you're in MoCo, call 311 to report the litter and if you can get a picture of the litter bugs, send it to the county.

Partially this. Though I’ll add that they likely don’t care much in their own neighborhood also.

I live in a lower-end neighborhood and we get lots of work vans/trucks dropping people off, or picking up workers. They will straight up get out of the van and throw their trash right on the curb.

[Anonymous]

I really think there has been a slowdown in official cleanup. Not only is there litter, there are a ton of dead animals on the roads! My teen doesn't notice much, but he has taken to counting the number of dead animals on the highways. Look at 495 and 270. It is full of roadkill. Gross. And unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Re: budget, the county budget year is July 1-June 30. They cut all departments across the board by 6% from the prior year.

I am pretty sure the areas under discussion were trashy before and continue to be trashy, no?

[Anonymous]

Strange. I live in Bethesda and have never noticed litter on Maryland roads. I don't get out much, but I often have kid birthday parties in Rockville and sometimes visit St. Michael's or Cambridge. Nada.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: budget, the county budget year is July 1-June 30. They cut all departments across the board by 6% from the prior year.

I am pretty sure the areas under discussion were trashy before and continue to be trashy, no?

Did I say otherwise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things:

1. Hearing people ask, why doesn't anybody do anything about this? is somewhat exasperating. Trash does accidentally fly out of people's cars, sometimes they don't see it happen. I try to do some plogging. If we all did a little plogging occasionally, the place could look much better.

2. Contact the county council about the litter issue. The county is a hot mess right now. Some of the littered areas are not safe for plogging and the county needs to send a truck to get this stuff up. I'm sure all the budgets are cut due to covid, but this is also a public health issue. The council only cares about issues that they think constituents care about, so let them know.

That is an unfair criticism, IMO.

I’ve done park cleanups, etc but even we have asked this sometimes. As in, why doesn’t the county do something about the people leaving tires in on the Rock Creek trail? There has to be somewhere that people are coming in with tires. Can’t they set up a camera? Or a camera at the exit ramps where there is an non sane amount of trash?

Sure, occasionally there is trash flying out a car window. But a paint can?? Typewriters? Furniture? Entire McDonald’s bags? And the trash on Rock Creek trail isn’t accidentally flying out of windows. Or the trash at the Wheaton Woods basketball courts/soccer fields (for example). There are people playing sports there who just leave tons and tons of water bottles/beer bottles on the fields.

There has to be something more we can do, versus just getting out there to pick up other people’s trash.

You got suggestions. Call 311, write your council members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things:

1. Hearing people ask, why doesn't anybody do anything about this? is somewhat exasperating. Trash does accidentally fly out of people's cars, sometimes they don't see it happen. I try to do some plogging. If we all did a little plogging occasionally, the place could look much better.

2. Contact the county council about the litter issue. The county is a hot mess right now. Some of the littered areas are not safe for plogging and the county needs to send a truck to get this stuff up. I'm sure all the budgets are cut due to covid, but this is also a public health issue. The council only cares about issues that they think constituents care about, so let them know.

That is an unfair criticism, IMO.

I’ve done park cleanups, etc but even we have asked this sometimes. As in, why doesn’t the county do something about the people leaving tires in on the Rock Creek trail? There has to be somewhere that people are coming in with tires. Can’t they set up a camera? Or a camera at the exit ramps where there is an non sane amount of trash?

Sure, occasionally there is trash flying out a car window. But a paint can?? Typewriters? Furniture? Entire McDonald’s bags? And the trash on Rock Creek trail isn’t accidentally flying out of windows. Or the trash at the Wheaton Woods basketball courts/soccer fields (for example). There are people playing sports there who just leave tons and tons of water bottles/beer bottles on the fields.

There has to be something more we can do, versus just getting out there to pick up other people’s trash.

You got suggestions. Call 311, write your council members.

I do call 311.

But there obviously need to be some shifts in mindset since this has become such a widespread issue recently.

I don’t remember it being this bad 5 years ago. Is it just due to an increase in population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really think there has been a slowdown in official cleanup. Not only is there litter, there are a ton of dead animals on the roads! My teen doesn't notice much, but he has taken to counting the number of dead animals on the highways. Look at 495 and 270. It is full of roadkill. Gross. And unusual.

I think the increase in roadkill is just due to more animals being out.

The County seems to do a good job of picking up the roadkill quickly. That doesn’t bug me as much. At least it’s organic material and the vultures can come and take care of it.

The plastic water bottles and Takis Fuego wrappers do not biodegrade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strange. I live in Bethesda and have never noticed litter on Maryland roads. I don't get out much, but I often have kid birthday parties in Rockville and sometimes visit St. Michael's or Cambridge. Nada.

I have not seen it there. Its exiting DC through SE the trash starts piling up and on from.there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two things:

1. Hearing people ask, why doesn't anybody do anything about this? is somewhat exasperating. Trash does accidentally fly out of people's cars, sometimes they don't see it happen. I try to do some plogging. If we all did a little plogging occasionally, the place could look much better.

2. Contact the county council about the litter issue. The county is a hot mess right now. Some of the littered areas are not safe for plogging and the county needs to send a truck to get this stuff up. I'm sure all the budgets are cut due to covid, but this is also a public health issue. The council only cares about issues that they think constituents care about, so let them know.

That is an unfair criticism, IMO.

I’ve done park cleanups, etc but even we have asked this sometimes. As in, why doesn’t the county do something about the people leaving tires in on the Rock Creek trail? There has to be somewhere that people are coming in with tires. Can’t they set up a camera? Or a camera at the exit ramps where there is an non sane amount of trash?

Sure, occasionally there is trash flying out a car window. But a paint can?? Typewriters? Furniture? Entire McDonald’s bags? And the trash on Rock Creek trail isn’t accidentally flying out of windows. Or the trash at the Wheaton Woods basketball courts/soccer fields (for example). There are people playing sports there who just leave tons and tons of water bottles/beer bottles on the fields.

There has to be something more we can do, versus just getting out there to pick up other people’s trash.

You got suggestions. Call 311, write your council members.

But its so unwoke to be concerned with nuisance crimes.

[Anonymous]

I don’t notice it along the sides of the road any more than anywhere else I’ve been. I do notice it on trash days in the neighborhood. The trash collectors leave a trail of errant garbage all over the place which my dog loves to examine on our walks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of non/low-taxpayers in MD...

what difference does this make, not being snarky, truly I am curious?

People who don't pay taxes or pay very little taxes do not have a sense of being a stakeholder. I don't recall where I read this, but it's an established theory that a broad tax base is conducive to civic engagement because people take better care of things that they help pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The state probably reduced highway litter pickup as a cost savings measure.

At least Maryland regularly mows its roadway medians, unlike Virginia which does the bare minimum in median maintenance...

I'd rather have overgrown medians than litter ha ha

Actually the mowing was pretty terrible in MoCo this year too- Covid related somehow although mowing seems like a pretty socially distant job.