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This morning’s litter report:

3 Budweiser cans (Anheuser- Busch)

2 Michelob cans (Anheuser- Busch)

1 Busch can (Anheuser- Busch)

1 generic cola can

1 Rolling Rock bottle (New York beer)

1 Smirnoff Vodka point flask

1 plastic donut container

OK, it’s not a scientific survey, just what I picked up
this morning along the 800 feet of country road my few acres front.  The snow is gone and the cans and litter tossed
out of passing cars over the winter months lie exposed and easy to pick up. I
pick up the litter along the road about once a month when there’s not snow, but
from December- March it piles up, and today I scooped it all up. Heavy on the alcohol
(mostly beer), one soft drink and one junk food container.

Not Budweiser’s fault that they are the number one selling
beer, and so the number one thrown away can. Not that this kind of litter is
destroying the planet: molecular garbage, the unseen carcinogens, endocrine
disrupters, fertility killers, frog mutators are a bigger problem. So is
species loss and climate change. But litter is right in our face- or at least
our front yard- and it is a visible sign of unconsciousness that leads to the
rest.

How often do we use the phrase “Throw it away"? Weekly,
daily? Where is away? My roadside fields for some. But "away" is going away. Solvents
in polar bear fat are manufactured and used far from the Polar
Regions. CO2 that traps sunlight and warms the globe comes from
all over and spreads everywhere; we are all downstream of some waste stream or another.

So just as keeping windows repaired in buildings help to
keep neighborhoods alive and thriving, changing the throwaway mentality we have
all been sold with our last 6 pack helps lead to greater awareness of what else
we are throwing “away”. Taking care of the little things helps to take care of
the big ones.

Nip it in the "Bud"! :)

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