Are You Trashy?

Kim Cameron
10/11/07

Are You Trashy?

Norman is cleaning up its act in a plan to beautify the city.A five-person litter control crew lead by street superintendent Greg Hall was added on Aug. 1, 2007 to help control the city’s litter problem, reinstating a program that was canceled in April 2004 because of budget problems.“Keep Norman Classy — Don’t Be Trashy,” is the phrase representing this new program.Mary Hatley, interim city manager stated, “The litter problem of Norman is a constant battle and it always will be a constant battle.”In a city with almost 200 square miles to police, one crew won’t be enough to keep the city clean, but it’s a start.The city plans to have one full-time position and four contract labor personnel from Force Staffing. In 2003, the last full year the city had its former litter program, workers picked up 67,342 pounds of trash beside the road or 6.73 tons per person. Much of the trash like Styrofoam soft drink cups fall into bar ditches and end up going into the storm water system or the wind blows and trash collects on fence lines.

One of our main streets welcoming people to Norman is covered in trash, is this any way to show our pride in where we live?In the rural areas, people dump huge loads of trash on the side of the road. People think the roadsides are a place to dump their personal trash.

There are many things that are dumped that could be recycled, like tree limbs into the city’s compost facility. It is difficult to catch someone in the act of littering leading to many feeling the “well I will go ahead and litter because I won’t get caught” syndrome. But did you know that if two forms of identification are found in roadside trash, the city can prosecute? Citizens who witness trash dumping also can have citations issued. Mayor Cindy Rosenthal said the city wants to build on the recent citizen cleanup efforts and encourage volunteers, homeowner associations, businesses and merchant associations to continue to work on cleaning up the city. There are 33 sections of road in Norman in the Adopt-a-Street plan. Other recent efforts by the Norman Downtowners Association have cleaned up the downtown area before festivals like May Fair. The University of Oklahoma has been a “wonderful partner” in cleanup efforts. The environmental campus organization OUr Earth has been a major influence in keeping not only the campus but Norman clean as well by such efforts as handing out trash bags at the stadium on gamedays.Rosenthal and the city staff hope to energize citizens to be more proactive about cleaning up the city. “It just takes one individual to pick up one piece of trash to make a difference,” Hall said.

I encourage all of you to take this information and think twice in the future about where you throw your trash, whether in Norman or any other city because classy is the way to go.