Word: litter
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...environmental problems that plague the U.S., litter has perhaps the lowest priority. But even when trash is out of mind, it is never really out of sight. Paper cups, tin cans, plastic wrappers, aluminum flip-tops and glass bottles are the detritus of profligacy, defiling the national landscape. The American penchant for littering is costly as well as unsightly; picking up the rubbish costs an estimated $1 billion per year. But the mess can be cleaned up, as Washington and Oregon are showing in different ways. One state uses the carrot, the other the stick. Both have been successful...
Oregon opted for the tough approach and is concentrating on clearing away the empty beverage containers that account for up to 75% of the volume of roadside litter. The effort began in 1971 when the state legislature banned pop-top cans and no-deposit, no-return bottles. Oregonians now must pay a 2? to 5? deposit on containers. The idea was to create an incentive for returning empties or, if they were thrown out anyway, to turn one person's heed less discard into another's petty cash...
What makes the law work, however, is the simple fact that the vast majority of the state's residents really want to clean up their landscape, even if it means toting empties back to retail outlets. Result: the volume of bottles and cans in roadside litter has dropped by as much as 92% in the past three years...
...Certainly dogs (and cats) are being overbred by puppy and kitten "mills" to be peddled to pet shops and on to the public. Add to that the irresponsible owner who thinks it is just great to have a litter of unwanted puppies or kittens so that the children can see the "miracle of birth." They ought to take the kids out to the animal shelters so that they could also see the miracle of death as thousands of homeless strays are killed every day in this country...
...Arts on Saturdays at 2:30 and 4. If you're mostly a kiddy or if you know someone who is, take note; these little message skits are quite well done despite their propagandistic tendencies. A lot of the sketches are socially oriented, like the ones on litter, pollution, Indians and the hazards of smoking. If you're taking a punk to see this be careful because there's a ribald little number included called "Be Kind to Animals," and we know what that's all about...