A few whiffs of spring we’ve had two weekends in a row gets the blood flowing with thoughts of baseball, hot dogs and spring’s coming mirth. Late February and early March days in the comfortable 40s and 50s call for a brisk walk.
It was on a neighborhood stroll that winter’s detritus surfaced from melting snow. Along the roadways and sidewalks, atop brown blades of grass, there were few pleasant sights.
So-called “airline” bottles appear to be the current vessel of choice of drivers who toss them after they drain them while behind the wheels of their vehicles, eclipsing the once-favored half-pint glass bottle. Miniature plastic liquor vials of vodka, tequila and bourbon littered the landscape.
A few paces later, there were collections of aluminum beer cans mixed in with small empty bags of potato chips; thin plastic carryout bags attached to tree branches and shrubbery, flapping in the wind; a clutch of cigarette filters. How sloppy and messy we are, so indifferent to our environment.
While on a half-hour hike, it’s quite evident there are a bunch of slobs living in Lake County. That should come as no surprise to many us, especially those of you who decide to use highways and roadways as trash receptacles.
They must think the teeny plastic liquor bottles get up and walk away by themselves after they pitch them out car and truck windows. Ever heard the maxim “Pitch in”?
Tax dollars shouldn’t have to be allocated to police roadsides and highway shoulders of garbage. Homeowners shouldn’t have to pick up passing motorists’ empties off lawns and parkways.
Such behavior has been going on for too long. Despite various anti-litter drives and slogans (“Give a hoot — don’t pollute,” as Woodsy Owl first uttered in 1970) we continue to throw away our rubbish along public byways and into waterways.
It’s becoming so frequent nowadays that the Illinois Legislature is stepping in to make sure fewer and fewer pieces of rubbish end up in yards and along highways. A package of bills targeting plastic pollution was introduced late last month in Springfield.
According to Capitol News Illinois, the series of bills would tax or ban various single-use plastics. Can’t control the urge to scatter debris? Then Big Brother will force you to abide.
The proposals have the support of a number of environmental organizations, like the Sierra Club. One of them would place a 10-cent tax on each single-use paper and plastic bag shoppers may carry from retail establishments.
Freshman Deerfield state Rep. Bob Morgan of the 58th House District pointed out: “We’re attacking this at every level to make sure that we really start to stem the tide of plastics in our society.” That’s a long way from the career advice young Benjamin Braddock received in “The Graduate.”
“One word, Benjamin: Plastics!” he was urged for his vocation in the 1967 film classic. We took that to heart because the uses of convenience plastics has soared since then.
The Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup Report detailed in 2017 that plastic bags were the fifth most frequent item found during shoreline cleanups worldwide. Plastic straws were seventh.
Nearly 11 million pounds of plastics — the most of any Great Lake — make their way into Lake Michigan annually, according to a 2016 study by the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York State. It is estimated more than 100 billion plastic bags are used annually in the U.S.
Another legislative measure aims to bar the use of plastic utensils at state parks and the Illinois State Fair after 2023. Another would ban polystyrene foam, the type used in those white boxes leftovers are placed in after dining out. The target date for the Styrofoam prohibition is 2022.
With the public failing to abide by common sense actions, the state wants to step in and make us go cold turkey when it comes to the use of plastics in everyday settings. The use of carryout plastic bags is banned in three states — California, Hawaii and Oregon — and major cities, including Chicago, tax their use; others ban them outright.
It’s time to start picking up after ourselves. If we don’t, the General Assembly will.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
Twitter: @sellenews
