Metro Council Member Joy Styles represents District 32 and is a current street adopter through the Metro Beautification & Environment Commission’s Adopt-A-Street Program.
For more information on drop-off convenience centers where you can discard various items and information on hosting or participating in a cleanup, visit StopLitter.Nashville.gov.
Nobody Trashes Tennessee. That is the slogan of our statewide litter campaign.
However, if you look around town, you will see McDonald’s wrappers on the side of the road, plastic bags blowing across the sidewalk and beer cans strewn across lawns.
Simply asking people to not litter falls on deaf ears.
I hope, however, that perhaps armed with more information about the impacts of litter, we will begin to think twice before throwing trash out of car windows, driving around with uncovered pickup loads, or throwing trash in our alleys, streams and outdoor spaces.
Beyond just being unsightly, how we dispose of trash has numerous health, safety, environmental and fiscal concerns. Hear more Tennessee Voices: Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought-provoking columns.
Our area has seen some rough days
A few weeks ago, Nashville suffered yet another flood, which saw the Cumberland River and several area creeks rise again to near record levels.
This flooding also carried large amounts of trash into backyards and along creek beds, as well as into our storm drains, which if they are not cleared out, can cause additional flooding issues.
Mill Creek suffered extensive damage. Volunteers are still working to pull plastic bags out of high branches and will be working to complete the cleanup for some time.
This work will be expensive. The state spends $15 million a year cleaning up litter, and that is excluding natural disasters such as this.
The trash that we drop carelessly moves into our waterways, where it affects water quality and impacts the cost of future water treatments, not to mention the harm that trash inflicts on our water’s ecosystems.
This pollution harms our wildlife’s food supply as they eat plastic with food on it or move into residential neighborhoods to eat littered food items along our roads.
Cleaning up litter can also be dangerous. Many of our roadways lack sufficient sidewalks and shoulders for workers to be able to stop safely and clean up our streets. For those like me who travel with trash grabbers and trash bags in our cars to pick up litter where possible, it can be risky.
Joy Styles
However, the safest thing that we can all do is to stop littering.
The onus lies with all of us to maintain and enhance the beauty of Nashville. Let’s be responsible. As we are beginning to return to our new normal, you can once again host community cleanups.
Public Works offers free gloves, grabbers, vests and trash bags for volunteer cleanups. If you have large items for drop-off, please do not leave them on the side of the road or in a ditch or alley. There are four convenience centers that will accept those items at little to no charge.
Lastly, if you host a cleanup, be sure to post it on your community pages so that your neighbors can join in the fun!
And, if you need an extra hand, let me know. My motto is “Have grabber, will travel!”
Metro Council Member Joy Styles represents District 32 and is a current street adopter through the Metro Beautification & Environment Commission’s Adopt-A-Street Program.
For more information on drop-off convenience centers where you can discard various items and information on hosting or participating in a cleanup, visit StopLitter.Nashville.gov.
