Neighbor News
Earth Day ‘22: CALIFORNIA Tops at USA Deaths by Waste Littering
LOS ANGELES stays #2 for total USA urban deaths by events with virus-breeding wastes. Rest of Golden State sees small drop, victim numbers.
by STEVE SPACEK (follow on TWITTER @litterscorecard)
April 22, 2022 – On this 52nd Earth Day celebration, California's largest LOS ANGELES remains at Number 2 (among major US Cities) in the totality of annual deaths in 2020 from encounters with waste and related debris on public spaces: roads, sidewalks, trails and beaches said Steve Spacek, a national public performance specialist and director of the American State Litter Scorecard.
However, there is some hope for the rest of the Golden State. CALIFORNIA outside Los Angeles saw an 8 percent reduction in these type of fatalities during the same time period.
Find out what's happening in Sacramentofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates Los Angeles, in 2020, suffered the second highest fatality total--at least 12 killed—among 1000's of incorporated American urban communities. The Golden State observed an additional 76 of these deaths, fewer than the previous year. “These life-ending incidents can occur anytime and under all types of weather," said Spacek, Nationally, roughly 3 Americans were killed per day in 2020 by waste littering and dumping, with over 800 persons losing their lives.
In 2020, the Scorecard placed Los Angeles on the "USA's 15 Big, Litter Polluted Cities" list: metropolises with a 375,000 or more population that suffer outrageous unremoved volumes and large expanses of solid waste. Wastes "that are quite capable of breeding, transmitting Covid and numerous other unhealthy viruses and diseases,” Spacek said.
Find out what's happening in Sacramentofor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, over five decades of Gallup polls continue to find "a majority of Californians and Americans alike have great concern for pollution and its management by government," said Spacek. Yet the problem lies in reducing waste from the prime source providers and increasing efforts by authorized abatement individuals. Studies show Generation Z, people age 16-25, are by far the largest “profiled litterer” cluster across the Golden State, along with Building Construction and Landscape Workers, a group most prone to littering. “Better educating these culprits, while insisting maintenance personnel, contractors and volunteers to work with quality in mind, in a timely fashion, could help further reduce avertible deaths,” Spacek said.
