Published: July 08, 2008 11:49 pm            

John Cannon: Some more trash talk: 7/9/08

A few years ago, I wrote a column complaining about what I considered to be society’s worst litterbugs: Smokers. Today, I will rant about what I consider to be society’s second worst group of litterbugs: Beer drinkers.

While you will not find as many carelessly tossed out beer cans lying around as you do cigarette butts, discarded beer cans by virtue of their size and varied colors create far greater eyesores than cigarette butts. Besides, when mowing you have to pick up old beer cans; you can mow over cigarette butts.

I will say, however, that tossing an empty beer can into a ditch where the grass is extremely dry has little or no chance of causing a fire. You can’t say the same about lit cigarettes thoughtlessly flipped from the window of a passing vehicle.

So which do I dislike more as litter: Cigarettes or beer cans? That’s like asking whether I prefer beets or Brussels sprouts. I don’t like either one. In fact, I dislike all litter. In my book, litterbugs are clods who have no pride in their community and don’t care how it looks. In fact, although it seems to have improved somewhat in more recent years, I think this region’s litter problem is a detriment to attracting new residents and industries to the region.

God has graced this part of Kentucky with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It enrages me when I see how some people mar this beauty with their trash.

I think it was the late Harry Caudill — author of “Night Comes to the Cumberlands” — who I once heard say that in eastern Kentucky you can hike to the most remote area you can imagine — where you are convinced few men have ever been before — and “look down and see a rusty beer can.”

Of course, Caudill, who died in 1990, was exaggerating for humor — but not by much.

For the past four summers, I have mowed the grass at The Neighborhood, the former Johnson’s Dairy Building that is the new home of CAReS and River Cities Harvest and soon will be the home of the Community Kitchen, Area Presbyterian Ministries and the Dressing Room. Part of my mowing task is picking up the litter discarded in the yard. Since the property faces Carter Avenue, it is a frequent, if unintended, target of litterbugs.

Over the years, I have picked up dozens of discarded cans from the yard, and I can safely say that more than 90 percent of them have been beer cans. Oh, there is the occasional soft drink can (Mountain Dew drinkers seem to be the worst litterbugs, in this category. It must be all that caffeine.) but I guarantee there are 10 cans of Budweiser or Miller’s for every can of Pepsi or Coke.

When I was walking to church Sunday morning, there was a bag of six or eight empty cans in the middle of Ashland Avenue. From the second I first spotted the bag from more than a block away, I knew they would not be Pepsi or Coke cans — they would be beer cans. Sure enough, they were.

Now if I was a teenager who had been doing some illegal beer guzzling on Saturday night, I am sure I’d want to discard the evidence before arriving home. However, even at 16, I don’t think I would have tossed the empty cans into the street. I would have found a garbage can and placed them there. But then I have been lectured about the evils of littering since I was old enough to walk.

At one point in my life, there was one group of litterbugs I appreciated. There was a little country store about a half-mile from our family farm, and Mom would occasionally let my sisters and I walk to the store. We’d leave home without any money, but by the time we had reached the store, we had picked up enough pop bottles from the ditch to redeem at two cents each for an ice cream cone. Of course, a cone only cost a nickel in those days, but if it had not been for the litterbugs on Ohio 38 in the early 1950s, I would have never tasted maple nut ice cream.

Although I personally am not a beer drinker, I have no strong objections to those who are, as long as they don’t drink to excess and don’t drive when intoxicated. My complaint is with litterbugs and why beer cans make up so much of the litter I pick up. I’m confident that a majority of beer drinkers responsibly dispose of their empty cans and bottles, but the minority who do not sure produce a lot of litter.

It’s even more litter than those who toss out sacks, wrappers and paper cups from fast food restaurants. Those are the third worst litterbugs behind cigarette smokers and beer drinkers. But that’s a rant for another time.

JOHN CANNON can be reached at jcannon@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2649.

        

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