EarthDay '20: HOUSTON, FT. WORTH, SAN ANTONIO "Big Litter Cities"

by STEVE SPACEK litterscorecard.com TWITTER@litterscorecard

April 20, 2020 - Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth are three major Texas communities among the USA’s 15 Big, Litter Polluted Cities, where littering and dumping of virus-breeding waste is visible, widespread; more cities listed than any other state. This information comes as Texans celebrate the 50th Earth Day April 22 during the coronavirus outbreak, said Steve Spacek, a native Texan and public performance specialist that directs the American States Litter Scorecard .

The selected three Texas urban centers, along with Memphis, Nashville, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia--- American communities with lesser CDC-noted, Covid-19 case totals, and New Orleans, Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit, Baltimore and New York City--CDC case “hotbeds” are the 15 listed cities, all with 375,000-plus populations, Spacek said. Choices were made using indicators from published sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA), municipalities themselves and reports by Busy Bee Cleaning, TRAVEL+LEISURE and Forbes.

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, said Spacek. As wastes, cigarette filters, paper food packaging, plastic beverage containers and retail -issued bags can enter waterways, then ate by seafood caught and sold for human consumption. World newscasting concurs the coronavirus developed last November from diseased animal remains sold with impunity at “open-air” markets in Wuhan, China, he said.

Data from the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System indicates over 800 persons have died each year since 2010-- roughly 3 Americans killed per day-- from vehicular-majority encounters with un-removed waste and related debris upon roads, sidewalks, trails and in parks. These life-ending incidents, reported exclusively to NHTSA by state police agencies, can occur anytime and under all types of weather, Spacek said. He added that, in 2017, Houston ranked third for the most urban litter-attributed fatalities in the US; Texas had the most deaths for any state.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, five decades of Gallup polls find “a majority of Americans have great concern for pollution and its management by government,” said Spacek. “The cities of Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth have become big-time public hygiene and safety failures to their citizens and all Texans alike. Elected city and county officials, workers, contractors all acted too lazy. Filthy public spaces were not cleaned. There’s little to no waste reductions, almost zero support to reuse and recycle thrown-away items. Sadly, as highly-littered communities, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston appear to be paying ultimate prices for not duly practicing Green virtues: avertible deaths.“