Cleanup means litterbugs should clean up their act

Frontiersman editorial board

If you haven't picked up your bags and hit the road to help clean up the Valley yet, don't fret. There are still plenty of local cleanup dates available -- through June 26 when the Petersville cleanup effort ends the official portion of the Valley's campaign against trash.

Even better news is you don't have to wait for one of the official events to lend a hand. In fact, it's a good idea to get a little practice in whenever possible. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of places where you can get that practice, and some of those places have already had a cleanup day. You can pick up bags , dump passes and collection information at the Mat-Su Borough Central Landfill office. Call 746-2823 for more information.

The official efforts began May 1, and the change has been remarkable. There's another group of people who can really help the effort more than anyone -- the people who still think our community is their personal trash can, or dumping ground, and who believe someone else is responsible to pick up after them.

Those people are a minority, but sometimes small groups can do great good or great damage. It's also likely that we're preaching to the choir here. There's a good chance that the worst offenders aren't in the habit of reading newspapers, and if they do, they probably don't spend much time on the Opinion page. Their disregard for the rest of the community tells us they don't much care what others think.

Maybe there should be another element to the local cleanup efforts. Maybe, as scary and uncomfortable as it is, we should join together to tackle the problem at its source. If someone drops a butt in a supermarket parking lot, you might politely say, "Excuse me, but I think you dropped your cigarette."

If you're driving behind someone with fast-food bags and other assorted trash blowing out of their pickup truck bed, you might wait until you're stopped at a traffic light and point to the open bed. Sometimes it's not easy to confront people -- especially people who are obviously indifferent to their impact on their community -- but if we can convince even a few litterbugs to mend their ways, we'll make a great difference.

Take a moment to compose a polite note to a messy neighbor. If you're too uncomfortable to confront people, at least pick up trash as you walk along, to let people know there are people who care. You can always write a letter to the editor, too. Maybe some of those litterbugs do read. If so, we'd like one of them to write a letter justifying their actions. Maybe we're just missing something.