People my age, 62 or older, should remember the litter along the highways. I don't remember if it

[brewens]

was a state law here in Idaho to have a trash bag, but gas stations had them everywhere for free. That may have been because they outlawed littering. I think it may have been mandatory. looking now I see it is mandatory in Washington state. I doubt you'd get in trouble if they pulled you over and saw trash on the floorboard like I have on a road trip. I just toss mine over there and throw it in the can when I get gas.

I live right on the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers in Idaho. When I was a kid, about anyone would tell you, you'd be taking your life in your hands eating any fish caught along those shore down there. There was like yellow foam and rusting shit. Oily looking slews. I don't think it mattered because any of the good fish stayed away from there. Not what you'd picture thinking of Idaho, especially 50 some years ago is it?

Now there are bike trails and waterfowl everywhere. You might spot a few otters even.

It wouldn't even be worth owning a fishing pole or hunting rifle here if it weren't for the environmentalists.

[hippywife]

1. Some of us still live in places with dumbass rednecks...

who have no problems littering. The main road on the way to the lake we like to camp at is horrendous. So are a lot of other places. When your state is trash and full of trash, nothing ever changes.

[brewens]

8. I drove the "shuttle" for some whitewater rafters running Hell's Canyon one time. The other

driver ahead of me was a redneck kid from Whitebird near where you start down the road to this place. Pittsburg Landing on the Snake River. That dumbass threw a Keystone Light can out about halfway there. I was probably too old to take him, but I would be surprised if I could now. He's probably a 50-year-old tub of shit! LOL Otherwise we would have had a problem.

When we got down there and parked the trailers, there was a bad fire on top of the highest ridge you see here. Two big jetboats were taking teams of the Navaho firefighters up there. It was about 90 out and they were going to make that climb to go after it. They were doing that and inbred boy couldn't keep his cans and throw them in the trash.

For those that don't know. Float trips hire drivers to take their boats to where they launch, then take the trucks and trailers to leave where they get out. In this case it was my turn. I usually floated with those guys and anyone that couldn't go for the whole three days or so was expected to drive. It was my turn. They were retired pros.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pittsburg-landing-idaho-scenic-images-linda-lantzy.html

[hippywife]

9. Worse than the straight litterers, of which there are many...

are the ones who throw lit cigarette butts out their vehicle windows. Our state has always been very prone to grass fires, yet these dumbasses can't seem to make the connection between the two or just don't give a rat's ass.

I miss whitewater rafting. Used to go down to WV when I lived in OH. What fun, but completely exhausting trips.

BTW, looks like you left off part of the link at the bottom of your comment.

[riversedge]

2. I recall in HS we helped with Lady bird Johnson Higway [much more] beautification projects.......

I recall helping days and days-turned into weeks of cleaning up this [miles of] waterway in WI. The waterway is lovely now==lots of wildlife, flowers, and you can canoe the trip.


I found this for you and others.




Beautification: A Legacy of Lady Bird Johnson

https://www.nps.gov/articles/lady-bird-johnson-beautification-cultural-landscapes.htm

George Washington Memorial Parkway, National Capital Parks-East, National Mall and Memorial Parks, Rock Creek Park

“Where flowers bloom, so does hope - and hope is the precious, indispensable ingredient.”1

A portrait of Lady Bird Johnson with short brown hair and a delicate yellow dress.
Official White House portrait of Lady Bird Johnson

Elizabeth Shoumatoff, 1968. Library of Congress

During her tenure as First Lady of the United States (1963-1969), Lady Bird Johnson served as a champion of conservation efforts, advocated for the creation of National Park Service units, lobbied for the passage of environmental legislation, and campaigned for the improvement of the character of the nation’s highway system.

In a similar vein of enthusiasm and commitment, she initiated the Beautification Project as a solution to America’s urban ills. Urban renewal projects and the expansion of highway infrastructure had fractured communities. Downtown centers and neighborhoods were becoming empty and blighted. Inner city waterways and urban cores were heavily polluted.

Beautification, as conceived by Lady Bird Johnson, was concerned with matters of environmental improvement and condition enhancements. Quoting Churchill and expanding on his concept, Lady Bird stated that, “‘First we shape our buildings, and then they shape us.’ The same is true of our highways, our parks, our public buildings, and the environment we create. They shape us.”2

Beautification was far more complex than a garden club project. According to Johnson, “Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me…beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.”3
.............

[PufPuf23]

14. Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwood National Park

Here is a link from NPS describing the very accessible hike. Lots of spectacular pictures at the link. Several condors have been released nearby recently.

https://www.redwoodhikes.com/RNP/LBJ.html

[riversedge]

28. whow. what a beautiful. I have a

sister and brother in law who live in Oregon and they hike a lot. I will pass this onto them. Love the photo of the low and highland parks. I have only done the low level trails--many years ago.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

3. Litter was not everywhere in the 70's

Where I live. Now litter is everywhere.
Back in the day people were so respectful of the land. I asked my mom if I could toss my apple core out the car window she said yes but toss it away from the road.

And I felt guilty and got scared about mom getting caught for littering.

Back in the 70's at least here littering was something to be ashamed of doing.

Times have changed for the worse,litter wise.

[Elessar Zappa]

18. According to the link below,

the litter problem was much worse 50 years ago. I believe it. My dad was in the Forest Service and said there was so much trash at campsites and rivers in the 60s that you wouldn’t believe. Personally, I see a lot less highway litter than I did back in the 90s.

[moonscape]

23. Same here. Back then, you would see trash fly

out of moving cars. People seemed to think nothing of just tossing things out the window. Now I never see people roll down the window and just toss out a bag from fast food.

[Mariana]

27. If the roadsides and rivers and parks were so clean back in the day

Why were there always anti-littering ads on the teevee? If littering hadn't been a big problem, no one would have bothered to spend all that money making and running ads against littering.

[Mariana]

25. It was much worse.

Keep America Beautiful compared littering in 1969 to littering now. "The good news is that over that 40 year period, littering has declined more than 60%," says McKenna.

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/curious-about-littering-statistics-over-the-last-40-years/

[Wicked Blue]

4. Thank Lady Bird Johnson nt

[Retrograde]

5. I remember the polluted waters

the shores of Lake Erie south of Buffalo were lined with steel plants that dumped their slag directly into the lake. It was spectacular to see the plume of red molten metal hitting the water, and you can still find bits of it washing up on shore. The Buffalo Creek, which ran past several chemical plants, caught fire as often as the Cuyahoga in Ohio. Then there was the air - different colors depending on which factory was putting out what chemicals that day.

[DRiggs]

6. greatpost

lhs 67

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Littering has descreased by 66% in the last 50 years in the US

https://ecology.wa.gov/Blog/Posts/October-2020/50-Years-of-Litter-Pickup-and-Prevention

I definitely remember there being a ton more litter along the sides of roads when I was a kid in the 70s.

We've done a ton to clean our air and water. There are no longer dead lakes and rivers everywhere, you can fish and hunt more places than before despite urban sprawl. CO2 is the big problem now, and it will likely destroy us, but I think this thread is a good reminder of how bad things had gotten here in The US. Lake Erie literally used to catch on fire. Corporations were dumping harmful chemicals into the ground for decades and it wasn't even against the law. Campaigns against littering made a huge difference.

And we even fixed the hole in the ozone layer.

[hippywife]

10. I really don't see much emphasis on litter control...

the way there was in the 70s. No signs or anti-litter ad campaigns like there used to be. It's like people just figure the problem's been addressed and moved on.

[BlackSkimmer]

12. They have signs here in NC.

I see one daily on my route to a trailhead.

They also have people picking litter up regularly. Back when I was a kid, it was prisoners, but I'm not sure who they are now.

But I see them pretty regularly.

[Johnny2X2X]

17. 66% reduction is still not good enough IMO

In fact, it's one of the things I am embarrassed about when overseas freinds or colleagues visit. There's still more litter in the US than most other 1st world countries. And it varies in severity from state to state and city to city. And obviously, more densley populated cities are going to have more issues, but outside of that, there are probably some trends related to culture and politics of certain regions. Some people think throwing their trash on the highway as they drive is their god given freedom.

[hippywife]

20. Additionally...

from the link you posted, the 66% isn't nationwide:

And a series of annual litter studies confirmed that litter decreased by 66% across the state between 1971-1976. Some view the early 1970s as the golden years of Washington’s litter efforts.

And it also only refers to the five years mentioned in the above quote.

[obamanut2012]

11. Love how Mad Men shows this in the first few episodes

[brewens]

13. Tell me about it! I'm not making this up. Old time beer drivers told me they threw beer cartons

out on their way back from their rout for free advertisement. There would be a driver and a helper on a long run, so the kid would do it. No joke!

[obamanut2012]

16. OMG they did!

My grandfather told me that, because a buddy of his was a beer truck driver.

[Johnny2X2X]

19. What I think you're referencing, re Madmen

I am not that old, but I do remember seeing a ton of people throwing fast food bags out the window on the high way, it was a totally normal thing.

[BlackSkimmer]

22. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. My parents would never have done that or allowed us to do it.

Both of them were extremely strict about litter.

I'm glad about that.

[viva la]

15. We used to walk along the roads

An pick up pop bottles. Recycle for two centsel each
Not bad when an ice cream was just a nickel.

[Jilly_in_VA]

21. Tennessee is still awful

I still remember how shocked we were when we moved from Wisconsin. There was so much trash on Tennessee roads. Still is. It's bad enough on back roads here in Virginia. When spring comes spousal unit and I always take a trash bag and walk our perimeter to pick up trash.

[edbermac]

24. If you're that old you should remember this TV ad.

[area51]

26. I used to see a version of this in TX

[misanthrope]

29. It is still bad in Mobile, Alabama

I've heard plenty of locals talk about how they become inured to it until they travel far away then return to town and suddenly notice more than they did before. After one of Mobile's frequent summer thunderstorms, the trash ends up in the drainage ditches then flows into the tributaries and rivers. Local ecology groups try to build devices to filter it from the waterways, but they can only do much and are often overwhelmed by the amount of trash.

We pick it up out of our yards, watch people do it on the roads and it seems nearly impossible to stop. It's been like this here for at 40 years because I've seen it. I think it remains an issue for two reasons.

One is that Mobile is economically challenged. The portion of the local population who live below poverty level is more than 50% higher than the national average (14.4 nationally, 23.7 locally). People who feel marginalized and forgotten by a society are less likely to feel as if they as much of an investment in that society. Litter concerns are picayune in their position.

Two is Mobile's Mardi Gras tradition. If you've never seen it then you're unlikely to realize it, but Mardi Gras parades are trashy affairs. People throw refuse everywhere. It comes off the floats in the form of cheap snacks in plastic wrappers and chintzy trinkets. If something hits the ground, it stays there a lot of the time. There is a battalion of street sweepers and crews that come along to "clean up" the seeping, smelly mess afterward but during the affair, all the little kids see is a habit of treating the world like a giant sewer. That makes a subconscious impression.