“Trash by the Side of the Road”

February 7, 2021

Yesterday was trash day.  My job, each Saturday morning, is to gather all the trash from the house, including cardboard and cans to be recycled.  I dutifully carry it off in the back of my pickup truck to our local recycling center and trash collection site.  It is less than a mile from our home.

On the way to the site, I leave our home turning right and drive most of the distance to the trash collection area up a lonely country road which connects to main road going to the trash site.  Since this country road is so beautiful, surrounded on both sides by towering trees, and because we have a deer crossing site on this road, I look forward to driving it every week.

The downside of this road, since is it a country road and is on the way to and from the trash collection site, is persons who are in too much hurry to go to the trash dump site will simply throw out things on the road they are too lazy to carry off themselves.  This can include, over the past season, paint cans full of paint, some spilling out.  Oil collected in plastic jugs is also a favorite item, although the trash collection site has a repository for old oil, glass, aluminum cans, cardboard, tree and yard trimming items, old furniture, metal objects, propane tanks, discarded TVs, computers and the like.  Even paint cans are accepted if they have been filled with cat litter to absorb the paint.  There is no need to discard any items on the road to the dump site.  Yet it happens weekly.

The most popular item to discard, at least in the past 6 months, is beer cans and liquor bottles.  I have personally picked up a whole plastic bag full of beer cans and beer bottles, so at least this person had the courtesy to bag up his trash before discarding it on the road.  Christmas, a year ago, while we were away, a gentleman discarded all his bags of trash down at the bridge near the creek below our home.  He left his address in several bags on envelopes and such.  When we returned home our neighbors told us after they complained, the county trash official had contacted him and he had to collect everything and take it to the dump site, or he was going to pay a fine, which is SC is $1015.

The most memorable offering on our road occurred during late summer.  Someone killed an animal, and left its parts in a trash bag, which sat on the roadside for days.  I carried it off and the plastic bag leaked into my truck bed as I carried it away.  Dorothy helped me scrub the truck out, it stunk so badly.  I wear gloves, of course picking up whatever is beside the road.  My wife and my neighbor use their golf carts to pick up trash and often get a large 30 gallon bag of trash or more.

As I picked up the last of the beer cans littering the road to our home this Saturday, I got to thinking about what kind of person(s) throws out trash by the road.  I can understand the alcoholics, who don’t want their wives to find beer cans in their truck when they get home, nor the odor of alcohol either.  But what about the oil collected into plastic containers?  What about left over paint cans, or large cardboard boxes still filled with Styrofoam from whatever was packed inside?  What about the bags of trash that not only were discarded but carried a distance out into the forest so it can’t be readily seen?  What about old tires that suddenly appear on the road side, or left over concrete that is dumped out to  harden in a mound?  When we bought our property, I found an entire kitchen floor discarded which has been there for at least a year, as the carpenter ants had taken residence underneath to build a condominium of pupae of young ants.

Initially, I simply prayed over each trash item and asked God to convict the person who had thrown out the trash, to remind them that even a roadside belongs to somebody, that trash hurts all the community.  I asked God why some persons are so selfish and lack consideration of others, believing somehow it is okay to dump their trash on someone else’s property instead of driving a mile to place it in the trash site.  Yesterday, I wondered at the character of someone who trashes other persons property, trying to imagine what kind of upbringing would produce a person who discards their trash on others?  I tie the type of persons who throw out their trash on others to those persons who attacked the Capitol Buildings in Washington, D.C. on January 6.  I try to remember that these angry, deluded and sad persons are human beings made in God’s own image and I need to pray for all of them.

I personally feel, as a Christian believer, that the way we treat others is the way we also treat ourselves and God.  If we respect each other, cherish each other as neighbors and friends; if we watch out for the good of our neighbor and not demonize them, or ignore them, we also with watch out for the good of ourselves and the whole community.  Persons who respect life, cherish the earth, and work for the common good of all persons do not throw out their trash on the highway!  Persons who respect government and truly work for the common good of all people do not attack and trash the Capitol buildings as seditionists.  I believe there is a connection here.  Selfishness and greed do not produce community life!  Caring about others as we care about ourselves does make for better community life!  Life can be good for all, not simply a selected wealthy few who buy their privileges with money made on the backs of others who work for them.

Am I speaking radically?  No more than Jesus did, when he threw the money changers from the temple court in Jerusalem.  It remains to be seen whether any of those who desecrated the U.S Capitol will receive punishment for their crimes?  It remains to be seen if those who stoked the fires of this insurrection will share the blame for these crimes.  In South Carolina, Anderson County, it remains to be seen whether anyone will ever be fined for throwing their trash by the side of the country roads.  If lawbreakers are punished according to the laws already written about littering, perhaps it would serve as a deterrence and prevent their doing it again!

Community and our democratic way of life is based on the premise that agreed upon laws are of the people, by the people and for the people.  If our agreed upon laws to protect community are not enforced, are we surprised there is continuing lawlessness?  If our laws are enforced more on one community and not on another, does it not stand to reason this causes resentment and mistrust of those who are paid to enforce our laws.  If the law applies to one person, it applies equally to all.  If lawbreakers go free, because of wealth, position, race or power, is that not discouragement to those citizens who seek to abide by the laws of their community?  If lawbreakers go unpunished, does this not encourage more lawbreaking?

Perhaps those of us who pick up cans and other trash off the sides of our roads do so only to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, comparing our righteousness with others lawlessness and sedition.  Or perhaps we enjoy the earth so much, we simply want to live in a world that is not full of trash, but clean air, pure water and an abundance of God’s creatures and insects.  Or perhaps we simply find peace and feel pride in our community and each other when our community is clean and pristine the way God intends it to be!

Whatever the motivation, a person who picks up trash is a better citizen than one who throws out trash on others.  A person who tries to limit their carbon footprint in this world is making our world a better place for those who come after us.   A person who recycles does more for the earth than one who does not.  I could go on, but I have said enough for today…or perhaps I have said too little!

“Now is the time, now it is high time to awake out of slumber and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you life, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (The Epistle to the Romans 13:11)

Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.  Forgive those things which we have done to displease you.  Forgive those things which we have left undone of your will and way.  Whether not picking up trash or throwing out trash is a great sin or a small sin, or trying to burn down the institutions of our government, we do not know, but we are saddened by both.  Whether we need forgiveness, harsh reprimand, or just punishment we are unsure.  In asking for your forgiveness and your mercy, we also ask that you help us see clearly, to know the truth from a lie, to recognize goodness in places of injustice, to finally discern the intent of men and women’s hearts so we know if they are trustworthy, good and true!  Make us to know the truth about ourselves and about each other.  May your truth prevail, may your justice roll down like waters and your righteousness like an ever- flowing stream!  In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are and make us into those persons we should be, though Jesus Christ our Lord, our Strength and our Sure Redeemer.  Amen and Amen!

Bill Wilson

“Amen!”