Our Beautiful Trashy Roads

Wanted: Green Drivers

Once in a precious while I get to be the passenger. It is such a joy when someone else does the driving, although as the passenger you always think your driver is crazy. However, as the passenger you get to look around you and you notice things that you just don't see when you are concentrating on traffic conditions. This is as it should be, so I get a treat when I can let my attention wander all around.

Recently my wife and I went for a fairly long drive to Barcelona and back to Valencia, and we took turns at the wheel. It was then that I noticed the dark side of Spanish resident's customs by throwing so much trash out of the windows of vehicles. If you look along the sides of the roads and in the grass and underbrush you will find bottles of every description, cans, enough plastic to cover the earth, metal, parts of garden furniture (?), half eaten bocadillos, plastic food containers, car parts, like bumpers where there had been an accident; plastic gloves, big and small plastic water bottles, which probably make up the major percentage of trash, and all sorts of other small items, including baby's diapers. You wouldn't want to get hit by one of those flying at you.

I have worked on roadside cleaning crews and found all of the above, as well as used condoms, lipstick, mobile phones, and a Gps system. If I had one I would throw it away as well, but not out of the window of my car. Along secondary country roads I have seen whole bags of household trash just dumped where it should not be; and old mattresses.

I was talking to a friend about this and he said that at least its a job for someone to clean up the trash. I suppose that's true, but what is really needed is respect for the environment. I was bought up on an island that sold itself to visitors as a tourist destination. We were encouraged to treat visitors to our island in the same way as though they were visiting our own homes. We kept a pleasant attitude, and we kept our country clean. Even now I put my pieces of paper and wrappers in my pocket and transfer them to the trash when I get home. I once followed another person's example by simply dropping a chocolate wrapper on the ground at the car racing circuit, and I felt so guilty I vowed I would not do that again.

We have only one world to live in, and our own environment is our own responsibility. If we make it dirty and clustered with garbage we can expect others to do the same thing. Should we lead by example by sorting our waste, and picking up after ourselves, we can expect others to do the same thing.

May I suggest that we equip our cars with a small garbage bag to place our waste in, and at the end of our journey we can then simply clean the car out, transferring the waste in the bag into the garbage can. That is a simple, feel good custom to follow. I know this to be true because it is my custom, and I feel very good to have a clean conscience about it.

Copyright (c)  2012   Eugene Carmichael