2015 Roadside and River Trash
Hi all
Spring is here and the snow has more or less melted. Revealing lots of roadside and river trash . Hard to believe the number of liquor bottles and beer cans thrown from moving vehicles. Makes me afraid to drive. But I digress.... Let us all get out there and make up for the slobs by cleaning up. Posted a picture from Colombia lake yesterday of trash picked up. Lots of bait cans with beer cans and one used syringe. Thanks for your help.
A good dayPeople who throw trash out their windows are losers.... Is it that hard to take your trash home and throw it out?!
Metsman You know what is really weird? They sometimes have a nice tidy trash bag all tied up and they still throw it out the window or leave it. Rather than go home and put it in a garbage can. I want to understand this. For some reason it interests me. I mean this is a lovely part of the state to live in. Some enjoy fishing etc. why leave plastic and other garbage?
Wouldn't surprise me if it's mostly people from urban areas traveling through and doing it.
When will smokers be fined for throwing their cigarette butts out the car windows ! ??
Steven 
botheredbyuu2 F.Y.I.,
Did not think it was correct ;
From "cigarettelitter.org"
Cigarette butts] also present a threat to wildlife. Cigarette filters have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds, whales and other marine creatures who mistake them for food ... Composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic, cigarette butts can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic."
My original comment stands , they should be ticketed and made to pick them up.
People should be ticketed for throwing ANYTHING out of a vehicle. It's littering and it's illegal.
Calico696 For all the smokers out there ;
What happens after that butt gets casually flicked onto the street, nature trail, or beach?
Typically wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many aquatic lifeforms.
Cigarette butts may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!
You can get pulled over and ticketed for throwing a butt out the window. They will get you with a littering fine. (and no it wasn't me, it was a coworker)
Shady Along Waterloo Road I sometimes see entire bags of household trash, seems some folks don't want to pay for trash pickup and just take it for a ride and drop it anywhere.
I don't litter and have trained my kids the same way, we just bring it home. The only thing I ever throw out my car window now and then is an apple core, and I make sure it gets into the woods. I know something in there will eat that right up.
It's a holdover from Girl Scouts I think, when they told us while camping that apples are ok to leave in the woods, but orange peels are not.
hktownie I'd like to start a cleanup on my road, mt rascal! Its sad people destroy mother nature. The poor animals too when they see the garbage will end up getting something stuck in their stomach or lungs and die :(
townie14 My gripe with cigarettes is the people who leave them lit wherever they dump them! If you're going to litter cigarettes at least extinguish them and spare us a potential fire.
iRun Whoever thinks that cigarette butts are biodegradable is more than welcome to come clean up the thousands of them along the shoulder of the road by my house. They're not 'biodegrading' at all.
Smoking is a nasty, dirty habit. It causes tons of pollution (growing tobacco, manufacturing the components, the filthy litterbugs throwing their butts everywhere, burning tons of tobacco as millions smoke), causes health issues (even for those who don't smoke and get it secondhand) which cause financial burdens on the medical insurance companies that then get passed on to the rest of us insured that don't smoke, and generally stinks up the area it's going on in.
I *hate* tobacco products. Not sure if anyone picked up on that. :)
The_Bishop Litter is a big problem and getting worse.
There are many reasons it is getting worse; perhaps a topic for another day.
But in the meantime, there are things we can do as volunteer citizens.
In my township of Allamuchy, my wife and I got tired of seeing all the litter on Ridge Road and decided to pick up the litter ourselves.
We were surprised by the support we received.
During our cleanups, neighbors would stop and tell us how they too were disgusted by the litter and offered to help.
Our group is now up to 6 individual and between us, we pick up our section of Ridge Road maybe 4-6 times a year.
We are able to clean a ½ mile section (both sides) in about an hour
We made also made arrangements with our Road department to pick up the bags of litter we collect – they dispose of it so that we don’t have to.
Our township also provides us with vests, gloves and garbage bags thru the Environmental Commission.
If you plan on organizing a pickup or doing it your selves, consider doing local roads versus county roads. If you find that a county roads is in need of clean up – you can call the Warren County Sheriffs County Labor Assistance Program (CLAP) office and request a cleanup of a county road. I have found them very responsive in the past.
innocentbystander A looooooooong time ago, a friend of mine was pulled over for throwing his cig butt out his window. Not only that, but the cop had followed him and counted how many times he flicked his ash out his window and gave him a ticket for each time he counted.
I don't like people littering, but that seems a little excessive to me.
bump2 Musconetcong river clean up April 11. See calendar. I will continue to clean up everywhere. :)
bump2:
I ride a motorcycle and as far as I am concerned , that person should have been required to go back and pick up the cigarette butt.
You have no idea how many inconsiderate smoker's there are that ride in car's ( and trucks ) and are oblivious to anyone, around or behind them, without hesitation , throw them out the window.
Being being directly behind a car in trafic, some onehead will throw a lit cigarette out the window with no regard for the motorcyclist directly behind them.
Get cigarette ash in your face, you will agree with the police officer .
It is inconsiderate, dangerous and against the law...
The Question is are you who see someone toss trash out the window willing to spend the day in court after you file a police report if your even willing to file a complaint
Caged Animal No..the real question is ; "Why do we have laws that are not being enforced ? "
Our tax dollars pay for "law enforcement" ...but it seems to be selective .
The people I see on cell phones, putting on make up, eating bagels with one hand and holding a coffee cup with the other hand while driving, is ridiculous.
People complain that law enforcement should all have mini cameras attached to them to be monitored for accountability ......
How about building mini cams into the dash of all cars to monitor the drivers action's nad hold them accountable !? !?
I have indeed taken the time to file a claim when I had witnessed a fellow run a stop sign, filed the complaint , took the time to go to court as well.And it was not a day in court , a window of a few hours ( at least that was my experience ), the court was very helpful and seemed to be appreciative of my efforts.
Sadly, you are correct...unless it directly impacts someone, they choose not to get involved ( this seems to be our new society )
Parking lot at the old Rte 46 A& P now a day surgical center / dr offices. Plus a liquor store. Many many little liquor bottles by the clothes drop off bins . A few big vodka bottles. What a mess- needs clean up. Also wondering what kind of person is drinking all those tiny bottles. And leaving them.
I had my kids pick up the trash on our street the other day. We have college kids on our block that chew tobacco and leave their tobacco cans and water bottles/ice tea bottles that they spit in on our street. Every day there's a new bottle. It's disgusting. The college kids that walk up and down our street just throw whatever they like out the windows of their cars or as their walking. We're also having a major problem with the Lehigh Valley New delivering newspapers to our neighborhood every day. There are newspapers lining the road. Nobody can keep up with them. Even the neighbors that diligently keep thier yards clean have multiple newspapers on their front lawn.
jc 
Musconetcong river clean up yesterday appeared to be very popular event in Alumni Park. So many people and even young kids participated. Gives me hope for the future! Keep cleaning up though, one day at a time. I filled this one giant bag in 45 minutes !
Today I walked my dog down the street (approximately 5 houses down) and filled a garbage bag. I picked up 3 large bottles of whiskey, numerous beer cans & bottles, water bottles, broken plastic, etc. The next trip will just be picking up the garbage. It's just disgusting; 1, the littering and 2, the drinking and driving. When will people wake up????
Iris If "deposits" were put on bottles, plastic, glass or otherwise, there would be less of this trash being thrown out of moving cars, however, this is New Jersey and common sense will never prevail..the politicians can't make monies off of it, so they have no interest !
And then to add insult to injury, are the water bottles that contain yellow body fluid laying on the side of the road. Gross.
3wbdwnj 
Nature Lover Go into shop rite and let them know. Last year I spoke to lowes manager - they are near river- and they cleaned it up. They were happy to do it .
I used to live in NY where there are deposits, and unfortunately it didn't change the throw trash from the car mentality at all.
GC The extra fishing line laying on the ground is extremely dangerous to all animals. When I get a snag (which is pretty darn often), I roll up the loose line and put it in my pocket. I cut it into tiny pieces and throw it out in my own trash. I can't stand to see animals limping with fishing line around them. I will even pickup other line if I see it.
sallysimpson It is so good to hear from you all. And I saw a lot of orange bags on 517 with trash in them. Starting to look good out there!
5catmom 
Two bags trash picked up in 10 minutes at the old Elsie's location on Waterloo. One was a 50 lb bag wet pampers picked up right next to water.
Still stuff to clean up! Gorgeous day.
Well, hey, if you are going to be drinking and driving you've gotta get rid of the evidence, right? It's really sad, not only how many people do drink and drive, but how much litter is on American roadways. I am a cyclist and going up Russling road last week I was overwhelmed by how much garbage there is.
eperot Eperot, it should look a lot better since a nice group of kids cleaned it up recently.
Waterloo rd boat launch by Elsie's. In addition to the usual bottles, cans, coffee cups, a matter and box spring tossed in the water. I called the hotline and asked to have them picked up. Scumbags that did this should be ashamed.
http://www.stopdumping.nj.gov/
Some enforcement actions and penalties are listed in this web site. A few for dumping on waterloo valley road. Glad the state has put up cameras in locations.
janster Thanks .I know the police are now checking for speeding and dirt bikes also reckless driving with four wheelers .
I haven't driven down waterloo valley rd in quite a while but do remember seeing dump areas- furniture and other stuff. It looked like it was used frequently for dumping. I hope that changes. Saw an article recently in paper about tire recycling in warren county. Think it costs money so hope that doesn't deter people.
The transfer station in mt olive will charge a fee to dump stuff but it's not much . People would rather dump their stuff for free .Now that it's being patrolled people can go to court and pay a few hundred bucks .
Mattress and box spring removed from Musconetcong at Elsie's. Thanks to the NJ Div of Parks and Forestry.
Not really road or river trash. Bottle dump-old-in Morris canal by countryside. Looks like someone picked through for anything of value.
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