According to the Truckers…

In further reports, I will not itemize the mess that we pickup, but will focus on preventable things.

 

Talking to truckers along Pinewood Drive (and they like to talk when they see our volunteer sign), Ontario is one of the biggest provinces with the least rest stops and facilities. Ditches all over are a mess because of it. Saskatchewan has better and more garbage containers. Alberta, even better, have a deposit on plastic water bottles and consequently, people pick up and cash in.

 

According to some ‘regular’ truckers to the USA, nothing beats their plenty rest stops with clean, maintained washrooms. Why are we, who depend on truckers, so far behind the moon? Oh, I forgot, it’s money!! Well, people in charge — get your priorities straight!

 

Getting to personal questions about their trash — some showed me their bag of garbage and swore never to discard anything out of their window. “It’s always the other guys from a foreign country if you know what I mean?” Really? Boy, I have heard it all.

 

Tim Hortons has signs out to remind patrons not to litter.

Then there is this thing with Tim Hortons… Yes, they provide a good product, but is nobody making their coffee at home anymore? I seem to have developed an allergy to those red cups, having picked up crushed, aged, fresh ones by the thousands every year; even in places so remote, only a bird could access. I wish I had ten cents for every one.

 

Yes, and how about the plastic shopping bags and water bottles. The government in their ultimate wisdom has admitted that they are a problem, and outlawed them, but when are they going to be taken out of circulation? If I had ten cents for every bottle or shopping bag, maybe I could afford new teeth or a holiday — but until then, they mess up our environment, and we have to pickup up empties sometime filled with…?

 

Enough for today, there is more to come. Meanwhile, Please be kind and don’t litter.

Karin Grundt
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One comment

  1. Hartley Waldman

    Our environment is too important to dump garbage into it. I have traveled Hwy 17 many times and I have never once littered. If you buy the product, recycle it or dispose of it in a proper receptacle, not the side of the road or a ditch or waterway.

    Sadly, Hwy 17 is very much devoid of proper rest areas or even garbage cans. Still, that is no reason to discard it into the wild.

    Those kind of folks are so shortsighted and likely would only care if it came out of their paycheck somehow.

    Thank you so much for cleaning up someone else’s mess.