Trash (Bangor: homes, neighborhood, buy) - Maine (ME) - City-Data Forum

BillieUSA · 10-26-2014, 02:52 AM

I am trying to figure out ways to stop those horrible people from away who love to toss empty beer cans, coffee cups, 12-pack beer containers, etc. along gorgeous Maine roads.

Any ideas?

I have never come up with a good answer, but one that makes me feel better is this: I recycle the trash. I pick it up and recycle it where I think it will do the most good... in front of places where I think the perps might live.. you figure it out.

Submariner · 10-27-2014, 03:33 PM

Maine is an interesting culture.

My parents did not drink. As a child I was never exposed to the culture where people routinely drank in their automobiles and tossed the empties out the window.

Through college, there was a lot of drinking, though I do not recall going driving for the purpose of downing a 6 pack.

I did a little over 20 years on Active Duty in the US Navy. I saw a good deal of drinking, and I did a bit of drinking myself. I have known a number of fellow sailors who got drunk, either at a party or during a pub-crawl, and then went driving and who died as a result of drunken driving. At least in submarines, any sailor who got into any trouble over his drinking, that was generally the end of his career. To stay in the navy, generally we learned to drink after there was no more driving to be done.

Honestly, I had no idea that so many people, a culture of people, existed that drank while they are driving.

I see people going up and down our road every week gathering discarded empties. They seem to earn enough to support themselves / pay for the time and fuel it takes to gather empties.

I have spoken with a few can gatherers, as near as we can figure there must be, a fairly large culture of people who buy a fresh 6-pack or 12-pack, every day as they get off work. Then on their drive home, they guzzle down a cold one every 2 miles, and toss the empty out their window. If your drive home from work is 24 miles, then you can toss out an empty can every 2 miles on that trip, and kill a 12-pack between work and home, every day.

For a few years, I was very active at my VFW post. This VFW post is in a town that has a Police Department at least 5 times larger than the local population can possibly justify having on pay-roll. I have met a few of them socially and from watching the news paper, it is obvious this PD's primary purpose is to harass the local UM Uni students.

Among the VFW daily patrons, a very high percentage park their vehicles at the town line, and call a taxi to take them to the VFW. After a full evening at the VFW, they taxi back to the town line. From the town line they can drive through the next 10 towns, on their way home, secure in the knowledge that none of those towns have surplus law enforcement to sting them.

I am not sure that it is "... horrible people from away who love to toss empty beer cans". I do not live in a tourist region. I am not on route to any tourist destination. Fresh empties pile-up every week. January? yes. March? yes. June? yes. Year-round, every week, people are out there gathering empties, and earning enough to continue doing gathering empties, every week.

Are you suggesting these "... horrible people from away who love to toss empty beer cans" are Uni students? I can see the argument that our courts drain Uni students of a lot of revenue from those students. The problem is that I do not see all of these empties coming from uni students, out driving as their favorite means of consuming beer.

From talking to some of the people who are out there gathering empties, the general idea seems to be that all of these cans come from 40-hour/week workers. Their are driving from their jobs to their homes, and killing a fresh 6-pack or a 12-pack, along their route home from work.

I see no indication that these people would be from out-of-state.

inthetrees · 10-28-2014, 08:40 AM

I think this problem is directly to related to the "parents that host, lose the moist" BS public awareness campaign to prevent kids from drinking at a safe place and not driving.

So they drive around and drink, and then get rid of their empties as quick as possible, so there is no longer physical evidence of their underage drinking.

bangorme · 10-28-2014, 01:08 PM

Well, there are lot's of way garbage gets strewn along the side of the roads. One way, I see all the time, is garbage flying out of the back of people's pickup trucks. For some reason, some people use the bed of their pickup as a trashcan. Obviously, they think it is a miracle when it is empty after going for a ride.

cebdark · 11-01-2014, 09:42 PM

I've worked the night shift for a couple of decades. I can guarantee you that I never had to play "Dodge the McDonald's Garbage Bags" in the wee hours of the morning like I do now that Broadway McDonald's in Bangor is open 24 hours a day.

The crows enjoy it (although I've nearly taken a few of them out trying to avoid the trash).

Too many people now are slobs. Plain and simple. And sad.

cebdark · 11-01-2014, 09:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillieUSA

I am trying to figure out ways to stop those horrible people from away who love to toss empty beer cans, coffee cups, 12-pack beer containers, etc. along gorgeous Maine roads.

Any ideas?

I have never come up with a good answer, but one that makes me feel better is this: I recycle the trash. I pick it up and recycle it where I think it will do the most good... in front of places where I think the perps might live.. you figure it out.

Unfortunately, the trash may end up in front of people who never throw trash out instead of the slobs who carelessly toss their garbage out the window on their way to and from wherever they're going.

What gets me about some people in my neighborhood, is their sheer, utter, flat-out refusal to purchase a stupid trash can with a lid that fits. Really. It's not that expensive either.

The crows love these neighbors and absolutely enjoy the leftovers they get when they shred open the trash bags and strew what they don't want for a 10 foot radius around the can. And, by the way, it seems the most windy day of the week is trash day.

I don't get it. There are a few around here who really don't care, and the mess is often left right in the ditch where it was blown.

"My" crows sit on my fence on trash day and give me the stink eye. My cans are fortresses because frankly, I'm too lazy to pick up garbage every week.

IHeartMaine · 11-03-2014, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reloop

I've worked the night shift for a couple of decades. I can guarantee you that I never had to play "Dodge the McDonald's Garbage Bags" in the wee hours of the morning like I do now that Broadway McDonald's in Bangor is open 24 hours a day.

The crows enjoy it (although I've nearly taken a few of them out trying to avoid the trash).

Too many people now are slobs. Plain and simple. And sad.

Amen! Littering seems to be on an uptrend again. Maybe they need to bring back the crying Indian commercial from the 70s.......then again, showing that would probably be considered racist and most people wouldn't get it now anyway.

*sigh*