I loathe 'dirty minded' people. Yes, if you are reading this you are a curious sort and couldn't resist the title. However, you might be mildly surprised to find that my reference to a dirty mind comes from my perspective of trash and litter. I love the tourism industry, economic development and community development. I adore new and transitioning destinations and business services but sometimes WE are our own worst ENEMY.
It's litter, public enemy number one. For reference, trash/litter is like soil/dirt. Its soil when its on the land, its dirt when its under your fingernails. Trash is in our garbage cans, dumpsters and land fills but its litter that blows across our fields, sits in our store parking lots, etc. Litter is the most common and easiest defamation of a business or communities image. We all talk about the reasons why people litter and ways to change those mindsets. As communities we boast and brag about our recycling centers, as individuals we boast about using paper over plastic, as educators we focus on changing the mentallity of our children, our future but what about our corporate businesses? I work near a major interstate highway where over 30,000 vehicles pass daily. Of course, we have capitalized that opportunity by making a large number of fast food chains available for the traveler. With the center of town several miles off the interstate, often times being the fast food capital may be the only perception of our community many people may have.
Recognizing the philosophy of 'you only have one chance to make a first impression', we have various civic groups and organizations that volunteer their time to clean up the ditches and center mediums along the high traffic areas where litter is a recognized problem. I found I could easily differentiate between a Sonic straw and a McDonald's straw, that most litters smoke Marlboro's, they also drink Mountain Dew and that someone needs to build a better rubber bungee strap. While I cursed these 'dirty minded' people under my breathe, I stood there straightening my fatigued back and noted that NONE of the fast food restaurants had trash cans near their drive-thru or exits! Duh!
So, with the wisdom of the ages, our Chamber and Beautification committee's made subtle requests of the local fast food restaurants to consider providing these containers to deal with the growing litter problems. Difficult yes, but slowly the trash receptacles started to appear. Guess what happened next? Of course you do, people were using the cans! Boy, did they use the cans and those managers couldn't keep up with the volume of trash produced, nor the priority on getting those containers emptied before the trash spilled out and littered the ground. Even with overflowing containers, people were still trying to do the right thing and made aggressive attempts at jamming sacks and cups from their previous destination into these trash cans.
Since I could clearly see the overflow problems from my drive-thru lane, I often informed the employees at the windows about the overflow. Several amusing responses were given including 'Yeah, we don't have time to empty it' or 'I just hate that thing, its such an eye sore'.
Given the wonderful wind conditions that we are often blessed with, not responding in a timely manner did help eliminate the problem for some of those businesses. Now as you pull back onto the interstate you can look out across the landscape of farmlands, pastureland and waterways to see the glimmering reflection of plastic sacks and cups, styrofoam containers and condiment packets. I always reminisce of the 70's commercial of an Indian Warrior standing looking at the litter.
Now I make it a habit of surveying for trash cans at the fast food and retail businesses. I noticed in one community the local Wal-Mart put trash cans in their parking lot, located next to shopping cart returns. Better yet, people were using them. So why does it appear that it's a management decision and not a corporate one? Our fast food managers along the interstate must have gotten together and decided to present a united front because they ALL took out the trash cans as you exit their property! Braum's did respond by saying they send employees out to pick up trash in their frontage area. Really? So, I challenge each of you to take the initiative to ask those business managers of your Wal-Marts, Taco Bell, KFC, Arby's, McDonald's, Braum's, Taco Mayo's... and any other business contributing to the growing litter problems in our great state to give people that chance to do the right thing!
Are you 'Dirty Minded'?
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