Letter to the Editor

Stinky, sticky

In response to Bob Kochersberger's Jan. 27 Point of View article ("Make it a goal: cleaner roadsides"), a bottle bill is not the answer!

My experience as an Adopt-a-Highway cleanup volunteer tells me that most litter is from fast food outlets, or debris falling from unsecured loads. Recyclable material is a very small part of the accumulation.

My kids live in Iowa and Michigan, states requiring deposits for cans and bottles. The deposit is a nuisance. The grocery store lobbies stink near the return machines. The floors from the entry door to the machines and on into the stores are sticky with soda residue.

Cans must be undamaged or the mechanisms will reject them. They must be fed one at a time into the machine for counting, causing lines of people. My son has decided the return of the deposit is not worth waiting for. He puts the cans into his home recycle bin for pickup, adding $.05 to the cost of every can or bottle he uses.

To fix this unsightly North Carolina trash problem, let's penalize the offenders, not every consumer. Strict enforcement of the littering laws with repeated severe penalties will send the message that North Carolina is serious, more so than the mild warning letter abusers now receive.

Roger Reilly

Raleigh

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/29/951878/stinky-sticky.html#ixzz1D22x9L1m