Earth Day ‘22: SOUTHEAST USA Hotbed for Waste Littering Deaths!

by STEVE SPACEK (TWITTER @litterscorecard)

April 23, 2022 – For this Earth Day weekend, the SOUTHEAST remains a DEADLY national epicenter from encounters with waste and related debris on public spaces: roads, sidewalks, trails and beaches said Steve Spacek, a public performance specialist and Director of the American State Litter Scorecard.

The three Southeast STATES of Florida, Georgia and Alabama already carry a lion's share of these types of deaths within America. But two of the three saw notable increases in waste littering incident fatalities in 2020 (latest year available) than from the previous year. ALABAMA saw three more deaths. But GEORGIA witnessed a whopping 1o MORE DEAD! than the previous 12 month period. "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, with over 800 persons losing their lives.

In 2020, the Scorecard placed MIAMI and ATLANTA on the "USA's 15 Biggest, Litter Polluted" list: metropolises with a 375,000 or more population that "suffer outrageous, Covid -transmitting waste littering," said Spacek. "The two Cities suffer filthy roads, sidewalks, parks, with horrendous putrids along Miami Beach. Waste and Curbside Recycling efforts in Atlanta and Miami are seemingly non-existent. Some public properties have become infested dumping grounds ripe for anyone just passing by to catch, then die, from Covid."

On the other hand...Spacek's litter information and prevention organization recognized what Busy Bee Cleaning Services did a few years earlier: JACKSONVILLE, Florida's most populous community being THE "Cleanest Big City" for ALL of America!

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, five decades of Gallup Polls continue to find " a majority of Southerners and Americans alike have great concern for pollution and its management by government." But lessening the efforts of source litterers and increasing results by authorized abatement individuals remains problematic. For the Southeast litter studies have found Construction-Landscape Workers and Fast Foodies doing most of the harms--the two major demographic groups most prone to littering and dumping anytime, anywhere across Florida, Georgia and Alabama. "Educating these culprits not to engage in nasty, prohibited behaviors, and insisting DOT maintenance folks, their contractors and volunteers to be quality minded, may help further reduce these senselessly high death tolls, " Spacek said.

website: https://www.litterscorecard.com