Who is Really Trashing Southern Central WV? (Charleston, Morgantown: appliances, home)

[Michigan_WV_Travelers]

For the last 8 years myself and my wife have been spending the month of August in Southern Central WV and this year seems to be the worst! Cans, plastic bottles, diapers, ect..... at each turn! What's going on down there? We found that the locals blame the teens, and the teens blame the local govornments...Lack of enforcement, No bottle returns, no real recycle policies.......

Don't get me wrong on this post and yes it's my first post but we were really shocked on how bad it has got during this years trip. We still love West Virginia and the people we have met and we plan on moving to the Hinton area soon, but who is trashing our trip and why?

Mr. Ms Morris

[vec101]

You should go into some of the hollers - you really do see cars in the middle of them, trash just thrown over the hillside often near the creek, etc. Does garbage service not run there or can they not afford to pay for the garbage service?

[Michigan_WV_Travelers]

We seen the cars too! Also as we crossed the Bluestone lake bridge on 77 we deicided to explore the back road that runs under the bridge and have a picnic along the river, what did we find! A dried up creek and trash. It's was heart breaking to see. Wife became so upset we packed up and left for the State Park (Bluestone). I can guess that some of the trash under the bridge was from motorist off 77 (just thow it over the bridge), but their was much more from the locals. (TV's, car parts, chairs,.......) It was a sad day! We spend over 4000 dollars in WV each trip and would gladly donate that much to help clean it up! Come on Mountaineers lets do something to stop this mess, How about a return bottle law to start with!

[r601020]

I'm a newcomer to WV . . and that's been a hard one to pinpoint as a "type", because I've seen dirt poor in WV that looked respectful, but some areas are trashed that don't make sense at all. Some areas are definitely worse than others. What's really annoying is I've had to modify my language, because I can no longer call 3rd world countries a ****hole if parts of WV are going to have this standard.

I'm well traveled, and there's a particular place in WV that's one of the most beautiful scenes I've ever come across, and yet when I took a friend to see this, we ended up carrying out 2 bags of litter (not ours). Is that only way to do this, clean up after these slobs? I hate cleaning up after myself so it really pisses me off to clean up after someone else.

I can understand poor. I just don't the understand the trash. Is it psychology? Is it just hateful mother ****ers who have to make everything a ****hole so everybody knows how miserable they are?

Whatever the source of the problem is, a solution is necessary.

[suecen]

This whole trash thing resonates with me because I live in what used to be a fairly nice area. Now, almost weekly, I go on a "trash run" because I cannot stand to drive past this road to get home and see what it looks like. Littering is a big pet peeve with me and I just cannot understand the disrespect some people have for their world. I'm talking about liquor bottles smashed along with almost anything else you could imagine. This just started happening the past year. Well I'm rambling here....but just had to put my two cents in.

[kookamus]

I live in Charleston and it is a mess. there is so much trash it is sickening. If you clean it up it will be trashed by the end of the day. I guess they litter because they figure someone will clean it up.

[Michigan_WV_Travelers]

vec101, r601020, suecen, kookamus


All great points and thanks for responding. Yes, something has to be done and soon. We also have noticed that this years trip was much worst (trash) than past visit's. Hinton, Elkins, Bluestone, Beckley, Camp Creek, Princeton and many of the other southern small town areas. The local's need to get out and take a good look what has happened in the last year to some of the most beautiful areas in their own backyards. Allthough we were very troubled during this years month long trip we still were able to take some very beautiful photos (posted in my profile album) with many more photos to come. Also I promise, we will be back next August because Southern WV is our second home and we all ready miss the many friends we have there. Maybe some of those who have and are trying to trash our and your home will read this post, I hope they do! Because they should be warned "WE WILL BE BACK" and if we catch you we're calling the sheriff and we will follow you to court just to make sure you trashers go to jail.

Mr. Ms. Morris
Michigan / WV Travelers

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by Michigan_WV_Travelers

For the last 8 years myself and my wife have been spending the month of August in Southern Central WV and this year seems to be the worst! Cans, plastic bottles, diapers, ect..... at each turn! What's going on down there? We found that the locals blame the teens, and the teens blame the local govornments...Lack of enforcement, No bottle returns, no real recycle policies.......

Don't get me wrong on this post and yes it's my first post but we were really shocked on how bad it has got during this years trip. We still love West Virginia and the people we have met and we plan on moving to the Hinton area soon, but who is trashing our trip and why?

Mr. Ms Morris

I just came back from my place near Hinton. I don't see any of the stuff you're talking about. I take I-64 from Virginia Beach to Hinton, and it's pretty clean.

You'll love Hinton, we bought there in April, and will be there full time in June. Can't wait!
~Mark

[GottaHerdOn]

One thing that would help is enforcement of current laws. Why make new laws against litter when the original laws are not being enforced

[vec101]

One day I saw a guy deliberately throw a can out his window, I was stunned - did not think people did that anymore - and I got irate but... what to do? I wanted to call the police (there is a $500 fine for littering, correct?) but I figured they would think I was crazy.

So.... what do we do?

There's been a few other times I've seen garbage bouncing out of the back of pickups (cans, etc.) and the people were oblivious to it. The main problem is people dumping whole bags of garbage, appliances, couches (OK solution there is to take them to Morgantown), etc. Several years ago across the river from us, people were using a pull-off spot near the river to dump their garbage - just dumped it right by the road (and we are not in a real rural area). Someone did call some department. The police or whoever is in charge got the names of the offenders from their garbage and did fine/arrest something (been too long I forget but remember reading about it).

We have "no litter" signs (guess we need more of them) - how about also a phone number to call on the signs.