Letter to the Editor: The Pastoral Countryside

Large and small beer cans, plastic bags filled with beer cans, beer bottles, four sizes of plastic liquor bottles, three sizes of glass liquor bottles, paper coffee cups, paper soft-drink cups, plastic cup lids, food containers in both paper and Styrofoam, shipping materials (including paper, plastic wrap and Styrofoam particles), cigarette packages, cigarette cartons, pet droppings in plastic bags, dirty diapers, cardboard boxes, plastic and glass soft-drink bottles and plastic glasses.

This is just a partial list of the debris that litters the roadsides in Door County. You’ll find such trash discarded along Townline, Country Lane, Fieldcrest, Flint Ridge, Orchard, Old Stage, Highway 42, Highway 57 and probably just about any other roadside in the county. Filling a 30-gallon plastic bag seldom takes more than a mile of roadside.

If you’re someone who wrings your hands about human-caused damage to our environment, think about helping by starting close to home. The next time you head out for a walk along one of our country roads, grab a bag and pick up trash as you go. You can discard it in your garbage and recycling bins when you get home. 

Before you think, “It’s not my job to pick up other people’s trash,” remember two things: First, anyone who is so slovenly and thoughtless that they habitually toss their trash out the window will not stop because they’re called on it. They don’t care. Second, the roadside mowers may grind up some of this garbage, but it will still be in the ditches, and the mowers can’t reach into the windbreaks.

Then ask yourself these most meaningful of questions: If not me, who? If not now, when?

Alan Moser

Sister Bay, Wisconsin