Flanders Road Trashed By State Contractors
Have you ever wondered what the state is doing about the amount of trash that is piling up on all the state roads in and around town? Well what they do is mow it. They do not pick it up, and they do not dispose of it properly, and they basically do nothing but break their own laws. Case in point - today on Flanders Rd in Westborough on the Hopkinton line. A tractor came and mowed hundereds of items of trash ( bottles, cans, bags, hair nets, plastic containes, diapers, pillows, boxes and cushions ) across the street from a wetlands to boot. Now instead of hundreds of pieces of garbage that at least could have been picked up by someone at some point, and you assume that would be the state, as Flanders is a state road, we now have thousands of pieces of trash that no one will ever pick up.
Pat Bogus
10:28 am on Wednesday, March 21, 2012
And I wonder if it was a state worker getting paid to mow the mess !!!!!!!!!!!
John
10:52 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Hello Pat - I know huh? Its almost crazy when you think about it. Any ideas on what people might do if they agree that this trash thing is a problem? One good thing is as I mentioned in another post, is I see areas in Westborough where the garbage is being picked up by crews. This is fantastic because it tells us that someone is aware of the problem, and although it could be looked at as "too little, too late" it is better than the towns/state doing absolutely NOTHING!! So good news one way or the other. We just need more.
Andy Koenigsberg
9:21 am on Sunday, April 1, 2012
OK, not a smart idea to mow trash into tiny little bits - but let's back up a second. First of all - we need to focus on who put the trash there in the first place - I doubt the "state" did it. Fact of the matter is that it starts with US not THEM.
John
11:12 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
One more thing. Andy brings up a good point, which is.."who put the trash there in the 1st place?"
This is the million dollar question. I think a lot of the garbage is there from your average run of the mill local slobs, who after they are done guzzling their large diet coke, that they used to wash down their supersized Quarter pounder with cheese meal, just toss it out the window. They eat in their car, and because they see the sides of the road already choked with trash, they feel comfortable contributing to it. So thats maybe 50% of the trash. The other 50% is the serial trash dumper or dumpers. We all know about the person or people who have been taking 7-8 or more bags of household trash and dumping them on the side of the road. Last edition of the Hopkinton Independant Police Beat was bookended with serial dumpings. I myself was told by the Westborough police that they have people in town who got pissed about the trash collection rates going up ( this was about 1 year ago ) so they are systematically dumping their garbage anywhere they please.
John
10:44 am on Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Hello Andy - fair enough. Any ideas or thoughts on what could be done or what people could or should do to spotlight the problem?
Andy Koenigsberg
11:50 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012
I have givens that question a lot of thought, especially on WCLT spring clean-up day as I pick up a lot of beer cans, liquor bottles, fast food wrappers and on and in that order. I think consumption of alcohol might impare judgement perhaps?
Short answer - we need to do a lot
The bottom line is education. I am not sure we - as a society - are doing enough to instill in them respect for the enivronment - or if not that, respect for the town they live in. I don't blame the schools - they cannot do everything. In fact, I KNOW the schools do a lot to encourage recycling and respect for the environment - but outside of school - we don't see a whole lot of encouragement.
I am old enough to remember the 1970's public service announcements on the TV when I was a kid - showing the Native American man on the side of the road with tears on his face as people threw garbage from their cars and it landed near his feet. When was the last time anyone saw a PSA like that?
The spotlight needs to be put on this issue consistently and broadly - somehow make people ashamed of behaving badly ("do you really want to make the Indian cry?") or proud of doing the right thing - whatever works. Given the vast readership of the Patch, according to Mary Jo Kurtz, who has told me that this web site has something like 21,000 consistent readers - the Patch would be a good place to start in my humble opinion.
Andy Koenigsberg
11:59 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012
And just to continue my thoughts on this - I am amazed that people angry with the town because the dump fees went up "protest" by throwing their trash on the side of the road. Talk about cutting of your nose to spite your face. You don't like the trash fees then complain at Town Meeting about tax rates going up, for multiple reasons I know, but someone has to pay for cleaning up this stuff. If DPW is dealing with this sort of incredible irresponsibility, then it takes away from their ability to do the other things they are supposed to be doing.
People have an amazing ability to compartmentalize things in their mind - and not making the link between truely bad behavior and the costs imposed on the rest of us for that behavior boggles MY mind. So yes - continue to post on this issue, send in pictures and get the problem talked about as widely and consitently as possible, in this venue or any other.
John
1:00 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
Well to be fair, the town in question that I mentioned was Westborough, and it was someone in the Police dispatch office well over a year ago that told me about this "anger at the trash collection rates going up thing" At the time, I was seeing most of the huge garbage dumps going on in Westborough and Southborough. Now of course we are seeing it here in Hopkinton. Since I have last posted anything on this subject, I believe there have been at least 3 more trash dumpings in town, in addition to the daily garbage purposely flying out of peoples cars all over the roads. The good news is 4/28/12 is a day we can all hook up at the town common and put a dent in this disgusting mess. I will be there.