Posted on 12/17/2003 10:24:38 AM PST by softengine
It's not an unusual sight.
And it's not a pretty sight.
Plastic jugs filled with urine are becoming a common sight along the highways, particularly at freeway interchanges.
"You wonder what's happening in our society," said Karen Cagle, who supervises highway cleanup crews in Eastern Washington.
From March 4 to Nov. 27, 2002, one Adams County highway cleanup crew picked up 2,666 jugs of urine and 67 bags with human excrement in them.
That's just one crew out of about 40 crews working in Adams County, and Cagle hasn't yet tallied the results for 2003.
But the problem isn't limited to Adams County: It's statewide.
It's one that prompted Adams County Waste Reduction & Recycling to take out a full-page newspaper ad. The ad features a photo of a plastic milk jug filled with urine, prefaced with a message: "Okay, One last time: This is not a urinal."
Megan Warfield, litter program coordinator for the state Department of Ecology, had the posters printed and made them available for any county that wanted them. About a dozen counties have ordered copies, she said.
"All of the cleanup crews encounter it. It's pretty much the same around the state," she said. "Ironically, they're mostly found on interchanges near rest areas. Why can't they stop there?"
Warfield said human waste falls under a newly created category that the Legislature created last spring: potentially dangerous litter.
Human waste, dirty diapers, cigarettes, cigars, tobacco or other items that can start a fire, and hypodermic needles or medical instruments designed to cut or pierce, fall into that category.
The fine is $1,025 for anyone caught dumping such waste. People are encouraged to report violators to 866-LITTER-1.
But the new penalty doesn't seem to be slowing down the problem.
Back in 1989, when Cagle began her job, urine jugs were unheard of. Now the numbers grow each year.
"Several years ago, we started finding them and didn't know what to do with them and left them. But you can't leave it there or the freeways would be (flooded)," she said. "It's incredible what's out there. Where is it going to stop?"
Warfield, of Ecology, said "The prevalence of plastic bottles may be contributing to the rise of this. We call them 'trucker bottles,' but we've done surveys and people have admitted to doing this when they don't want to stop."
"We've gone back and forth on whether this is a health issue," she said, adding that 99 percent of urine is sterile, but could be dangerous if it contains hepatitis or blood.
Gary Lembacher, who oversees the litter program in Eastern Washington, said he does not let the kids on his work crews pick the bottles up.
"I just don't trust any liquids," he said. "You don't know if it's pesticide or if there's something used in methamphetamine."
Lembacher said he's in his 16th year at his job and that during the first 10 years, no one ever found bags with human excrement. He's also noticed the increasing amount of urine jugs found on the road.
"It's a big problem and it's growing," he said. "It's not just truckers."
Taxpayer money not only pays for highway cleanup, but also pays for the state Department of Transportation to dispose of the human waste at the landfills.
"I don't know what the answer is," he said. "People are getting more out of control."
"You wonder what's happening in our society," said Karen Cagle, who supervises highway cleanup crews in Eastern Washington.
Hmmmmmm.....Could it be that this was brought on by us allowing our society to become a toilet in a less literal sense?
Or......and I think this sums it up nicely.
....."People are getting more out of control."
First of all, I don't think it is good for the plants (my dog's doesn't do wonders for my grass) and if you do this you are asking to get a stop 'n check by your local lawman.
Hell. There's at least ten times as much on prime time television every night and no one says a thing.
Up here in New York we have what we call "Rest Stops". These are areas where people can pull off the road and they have what we call "restrooms" where people can go to the bathroom.
Many of the legal ones share the same standards of sanitation. We discovered this during the course of building our house. The subs used the back portion of our property as a latrine- even though facilities were provided!
People like Saddam think that way about people.
In a free society, people do quite well in controlling themselves.
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