Tennessee Trash

Be warned-this column will have little to do with sports.  Yeah, I know…you’re in the Sports Section.  But if you come here often, you might have learned that I go off on tangents from time to time that have nothing to do with sports or athletic health care.

I was on my bike yesterday (no, we’re not going there), riding by myself, which is quite unusual for me.  I usually ride only in groups.  It’s safer and a lot more fun that way.

When you’re on a bicycle, riding alone, you notice things.  You smell the cedar tree that was recently cut.  You hear the birds calling out and maybe you know what they are by their call.  You are definitely more in tune with your surroundings.

And what I noticed yesterday was trash.  Everywhere.  I couldn’t go 100 yards without seeing trash on the side of the road.  It’s the worst it has ever been.

I live just off of Big Springs Road.  You may not know it but that is the road to our landfill.   I guess you can expect a certain amount of trash along that road.  My kids and I used to go out on Sunday afternoon and pick up stretches of it.  I still do, sometimes.

But where I was riding yesterday was in some of our most scenic areas.  Sinking Creek Road near Greenback.  Old Friendsville Road.  Marble Hill Road.  Union Grove

At least half a dozen times, I came up on bags of trash that had apparently fallen out of someone’s vehicle, broke open when they hit the road, and then spread out to make an awful mess.

Again, I sort of expect that along Big Spring Road but not in some of the more remote areas.  I saw enough beer cans to keep half the county drunk.  For a week.  Fast food containers seem to be everywhere, particularly the huge soda containers that you can get “for just 29₵ more.”

Let me talk about those beer cans a bit.  Ask yourself “why would someone throw an empty six-pack of beer out on the side of the road.”  Let me let you in on a little secret:  Those came from your kids.

Yes, your underage drinkers.  I mean, some teenager has been driving around (scared yet?), drinking with their friends (now you’re scared), and they’re about to go home.  But they can’t leave their empties in the trash can at home—they will get caught.  And they can’t drop by the local market—somebody might see them.

So they toss their empties on the side of the road before they get home.  How does a 16 year old get beer?  Come on…don’t be naïve.  People aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States.  In one study, 30% of teenagers admitted to having drank alcohol in the past 30 days.  I believe that’s conservative.  But back to the trash problem.

It’s everywhere.  Off the bike, I’ve started noticing more and more.  And it seems like there are more of the broken open bags of trash out there than ever.

I just don’t understand it.  What is the mindset, what is in the brain of someone that thinks it is OK to just take their trash and throw it out the window of their car?   I don’t think it is simply that they don’t care.  I think they never learned the lessons of personal responsibility for the world we live in.

If you are taking a load of trash to the landfill, you’re supposed to secure it in your vehicle (usually a truck or trailer).  You should at least make sure that it is secure enough that it won’t easily blow off. 

And if it does blow off, for goodness sake go back and pick it up!  It’s your trash regardless of where it is.