LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,715
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Around here, you often see the slogan "Don't Mess With Texas" on signs, bumper stickers, tshirts, etc. Many people assume that some sort of declaration of swagger, but it's the slogan for TxDOT's anti-littering campaign. The campaign is credited with drastically reducing littering, and it's become quite the catch phrase. Perhaps not everything from the Boys From Marketing is a bad thing.
What did the trick here was the Bottle Deposit Law we passed in 1976. Nearly all beverage containers sold in Maine have to carry a refundable deposit -- that's not just soda and beer, but also water, juice, tea, sports drinks, wine, and liquor. The only exception is milk bottles, jugs, and cartons. Within a year of that law being implemented in 1978, the majority of roadside trash was gone. The Boys have been trying to get that law repealed for almost forty years now, but they never succeed. We *like* it, and we're going to keep it.
Now if we could get a deposit law for sneakers, mattresses, baby carriages, and cheap furniture, we'd get rid of the rest of the roadside trash.