Letter to the Editor, Idaho Statesman
Drivers, use the bathroom
On recent road trips from Boise to eastern Idaho, central Oregon and southern California, I saw numerous plastic containers, soda bottles to gallon jugs, along the roadside, all filled with yellowish liquid.
Isn’t littering socially unacceptable? Is it OK to throw bottles containing urine along the road?
Public rest areas, gas stations, stores and other businesses with bathrooms can be found along all major highways. Don’t urinate in a bottle and throw the bottle out the window!
What health hazards from urine-filled bottles are public employees or volunteers exposed to during roadside litter collection?
Join me in a letter, e-mail, and Twitter campaign to our state health agencies, local legislators, the governor’s office, and the corporate offices of all commercial truck operations to stop this practice and hold responsible those that litter our roadways with urine-filled bottles.
When traveling, stop at a facility with a bathroom to urinate. If you have to use a bottle, empty the bottle in a bathroom when you get to one. Or empty the bottle in the dirt by the side of the road and deposit the bottle in the trash. Hold it, internally or externally, until you get to the can!
MARK DREW, Boise
I couldn't resist this letter to the editor of the Idaho Statesman. So who wants to join Mr. Drew's campaign to put an end to urinating in bottles?
4 comments:
Not me.
There are already laws against littering. What is his letter, email, and Twitter campaign going to do? It's going to create another redundant law to make something that is already illegal more illegal. The word for that is "overcriminalization."
Maybe his campaign will result in enhanced pee-nalties for this behavior.
He he, my inner 13-year-old is giggling about 'pee-nalties.' I'm with you @Steve. While I feel this guy's outrage and agree that it's nasty to find bottles full of pee (I find them when I clean up a stretch of road in my community too), it's completely an enforcement issue (and an issue of truck drivers and others who don't want to take the time to stop because they lose money) that's not going to change anytime soon based on someone's personal campaign.
Precisely.
I understand the issue for a truck driver. If they're being paid by the mile and it takes ten minutes for a rest stop (pull out, secure the rig, shut down, potty break, start back up, go), they might lose a few dollars of drive time by stopping.
That doesn't excuse the behavior. Take the bottle with you and dispose of it appropriately. You threw it out the window because you don't want to? Neither do we.
Isn't it fun to have an inner 13-year-old?
Yep, how about carrying a plastic bag in your car to put your bottles into until you DO stop? Now there's an idea. Littering is my absolute pet peeve and I used to complain all the time about the stuff I pick up until my neighbor told me about finding a dead cat in a plastic bag along the road. Bleh. No more complaining about discarded bottles and cans.
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