If you own a home, drive a car, ride a bicycle, pay taxes or care about good health, then you should know that litter is more than an eyesore, litter is a fire hazard, every 12 minutes a fire starts in litter. A safety hazard, Litter causes thousands of auto accidents each year and as many bicycle accidents, with damage to tires and tubes costing millions of dollars. A threat to wildlife, each year thousands of animals strangle or choke from litter. They also have health related dangers.

    I don’t know if anyone has been paying attention when you are driving to work, going to school or just out for a Sunday drive, but litter and illegal dumps are everywhere. These things are not only dangerous to the environment but to us as well. If someone dumps an old refrigerator for instance, and the freon has not been removed, if the line gets punctured or cut it lets that freon out into the atmosphere. Cigarette filters contain toxic chemicals that leak into the air and water, so think twice before you throw that cigarette out of your car window or down on the street.

   Illegal dumps and litter are a growing epidemic in our county. In litter and dumpsites there are usually rats, rats thrive in litter, rats have fleas that carry disease. At illegal dumpsites there are many dangers, we have found used needles, which can cause all kinds of diseases, glass, rusted appliances, which if a person gets cut or punctured could cause infection as well as disease. There are also tires, which hold water, which in turn would attract mosquitoes, which carry disease. We have also found meth-lab paraphernalia, which is very harmful not only to the environment, but to very harmful to humans.

   You can cover your eyes and pretend it’s not there or do something about it. Fighting litter is everyone’s job. To do your part, take the pledge not to litter, and keep it! Always keep a litterbag in your car and use it. Help organize and support community cleanup efforts. Encourage your schools to conduct on-going anti-litter and recycling programs.

    And remember…..Don’t be a Litterbug – Help keep Clay County clean and beautiful.
Brought to you by the Clay County Solid Waste Authority