After EarthDay '20 ATLANTA, MIAMI still "Litter Polluted Cities"

by STEVE SPACEK litterscorecard.com TWITTER @litterscorecard

MAY 9, 2020 -- Atlanta and Miami are the lone Southeastern United States communities noted in the recent Earth Day-released, “USA's 15 Big, Litter Polluted Cities”-- a list of metropolises nationwide where littering and dumping of virus-breeding, potentially deadly solid waste is widespread on public properties, but often not removed by local officials, contractors and volunteers. This information comes from Steve Spacek, a "born-raised Southerner" and government task performance specialist who directs the American State Litter Scorecard.

The two major urban centers of Georgia and Florida, along with CDC case "hotbeds" New Orleans, Detroit, Baltimore, New York City and Los Angeles, and large communities with fewer case totals, including Nashville, Memphis, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Houston and San Antonio, are “among the 15 listed cities,” said Spacek, a presenter at Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA) meetings held annually . Spacek added, “The chosen cities all have 375,000 or more total populations, selected using credible data from municipalities themselves, state and federal sources and respected media publications.”

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency and revered health science journals, solid wastes are able to breed and transmit fatal viruses and diseases--Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Malaria, Zika, even Covid-19, asserts Spacek. "Cigarette filters, paper food packaging, plastic beverage containers and garbage can bags can be eaten by animals and seafood that is later sold for human consumption," he said.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates over 800 persons have died each year since 2010-- roughly 3 Americans killed per day-- from vehicular-majority encounters with waste and related debris not removed from roads, sidewalks, trails and parks. "These life-ending incidents can occur anytime and under all types of weather," said Spacek. Furthermore, his Scorecard website notes the total death numbers Florida and Georgia suffered in 2017 from waste and debris mishaps: 22 killed in the Peach State, 52 in the Sunshine State. Only six states that year--South Carolina, Louisiana, California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan -- matched or exceeded the grim fatality numbers experienced by Georgia and Florida.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, five decades of Gallup polls continue to find "a majority of Americans have great concern for pollution and its management by government," said Spacek. "The Cities of Atlanta and Miami are big-time public hygiene and safety sellouts to citizens. Filthy roads, sidewalks and public right-of-ways remain improperly cleaned, some becoming huge dumping grounds. Though Florida and Miami does encourage residents to recycle thrown-away items, the same cannot be said about Georgia and Atlanta, where officials are seduced by anti-recycling Coca Cola and Waste Management lobbyists. Much of Atlanta's generated waste is still land-filled. And Georgia has become a top destination for garbage disposals from northeastern locales like New York City. Sadly, both Atlanta and Miami appear very willing to be pay a real bad price, to continue acting anti-Green while allowing senseless, preventable deaths. Behaviors that, much like the South defying racial desegregation in the 1960's, will have to, sooner or later, come to an end."