Do you ever stop by the display windows at the back of our downtown library to see what curiosities they are showing this week? If not, you should. All sorts of strange things make an appearance. Here's a good example: what weird items do those admirable volunteers pick up beside the roads and highways, aside from bales and bales of supeermarket plastic bags and fast food leavings? Answer in these pictures. Everything from old shoes (singles and in pairs) to toy bones for Rover...
...from dishes and balls to rubber duckies. Not to mention eyeglasses and shades or straw hats, license plates, and dead real estate signs. I think that padded pink heart up above is a particularly poignant specimen from our throw-away culture.
All together, now, let's give a great big cheer to the Litter Lifters who are doing such a splendid job picking up after our country's slobs!Some Stats & Further Info: So you want to help clean up the highways and byways? Check in with ADOT (or your own state highway agency elsewhere). The agency supplied the Top 10 trash list for the number-minded: fast food detritus, 32.7%; cigarette filters, 23.3%; store bags, 6.8%; plastic bottles, 5.1%; beverage cans, 4.8%; cardboard, 4.0%; glass bottles, 3.5%; cigarette wrappers, 3.0%; tire parts, 2.8%, and bottle caps, 1.8%. While I find the store bags category figure hard to believe, it may be that the percentages are based on number of items, rather than square footage or vision-blockage. One each cigarette filter or bottle cap destroys a lot less landscape than one supermarket plastic bag! BTW, one of my "solutions" to the eyesore problem is to pass a law mandating that to-go packaging be the color of kraft paper, like plain cardboard boxes. A lot less visible against the similarly colored earth than gleaming white, with or without bright red printing.
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