Litter Letter to Editor

         Environmental issues create headlines. Often we as individuals can do little to change the world around us, but in one area we are the ones who have complete control: trash along roads and highways. People are the source of the mess, and we are the solution.

         Some states have neat, clean shoulders beside their byways. Not so in Oklahoma - our highways and roadside parks (what few there may be) appear to be trash dumps. Even with organizations volunteering to clean and pickup stretches of streets and roads, rubbish seems to accumulate like weeds along the highways and byways.

         What can we do? We can refuse to drop or throw any items on the ground that animals or birds cannot eat. Things such as those made of plastic, paper, metal, cellophane, and cardboard or cigarette butts should not be left outside our vehicles except in trash receptacles. My family keeps plastic bags in the car to put trash until we return home. We even place things on the floor until we can throw them away correctly.

         The solution to the garbage along our roads is so simple: Do not litter. I, for one, would enjoy seeing the scenery along the roads rather than the chaff left by the passing of people.

Vivian Zabel
2912 Rankin Terrace
Edmond, OK 73013

words: 218

Submitted to The Oklahoman, by email to [e-mail] as preferred, July 18, 2006. Guidelines by paper state letters cannot exceed 250 words.


(Note:published in The Oklahoman July 25, 2005, page 6A, online link http://www.newsok.com/article/2776599/)