
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040473
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRASHY YOUTH HAVE NO COUTH

RECENTLY, many people in Montgomery County joined the Broomin' and Bloomin' effort to spruce up roadsides, dumps and city streets. Teams of volunteers, mostly college students from their looks, were out on Toms Creek Road, picking up and sorting trash into bright orange and blue bags for pickup and recycling. The shoulders are narrow and the road curvy, so the job was hazardous.

Along the entrance to our subdivision, my small daughters and I worked for about two hours to pick up 10 bags of bottles, rusted cans, styrofoam cups and paper. The children were energized by picking up the trash, but disgusted by the need to do it.

When we returned home that afternoon, tired and covered with scratches and mud, hundreds of students were walking along Toms Creek Road on the way to a party on Redbud Lane. Buses loaded and unloaded crowds, and the police checked for underage drinking and tried to help direct traffic. Cars were parked at the softball field farther out along Toms Creek. It was obvious from all the plastic bags along the road that a trash pickup had been completed, but the crowd didn't care.

It was infuriating and demoralizing to see the droppings of these party "animals" the next day. The parking lot at the ball field was covered with beer and soda cans, beer boxes and food wrappers. The playground was littered with cans and broken bottles. All along the road and even on top of the filled litter bags, were beer and soda cans, bottles and trash.

There was one college student out the next day cleaning up on Redbud Lane. Were the other fraternity brothers too bummed out or hung over to carry out their responsibilities as hosts? Who are the hundreds of slobs with such utter disdain for someone else's environment and volunteer effort? How can supposedly well-educated and intelligent students be so clueless about environmental respect and common courtesy, when even the youngest schoolchildren are environmentally aware? Who do they think is going to pick up their mess? Their mothers? The outdoors does not come with maid service.

Are there solutions to mindless littering? Can party animals appoint a designated environmental, damage-control person each time they go out? Can beer bashes be scheduled well before a clean-up day? Can individuals just throw trash where it belongs? Can litterbugs at least throw trash on a stretch of road with broad shoulders where a volunteer can safely get to it? Can trashy people not aim their drink containers at the briar patch?

I keep all my litter in my purse and car.

CLAIRE M. WALDRON\ BLACKSBURG

by CNB