For three years, Robert Harper of Mattituck has strolled the streets in his neighborhood, walking along New Suffolk Avenue not to enjoy the North Fork’s scenic vistas — but to pick up trash.
Lots and lots of trash.
Last night, Harper came before the Southold town board with photos of enormous piles of trash that he said came from just one week’s worth of litter found on town-owned land.
“I’ve been doing this for three years. I consider myself an expert — a garbologist,” Harper, a teacher, quipped.
Harper said he’s found trash and plastic bags around Lake Marratooka; he presented the board with a number of suggestions.
Those ideas included identifying areas of concern where trash accumulates, such as wooded areas and spaces near convenience stores, the laundry, parking lots and other places where people “hang out.”
In additions, Harper said not much signage exists in the area warning of steep $1,000 fines for littering; one does exist on Marratooka Road, he said. “There are none on New Suffolk Avenue,” he said.
The town needs to take action on parcels it owns, Harper said.
Property owners who might not be aware of the litter should be notified, he added.
An Adopt-A-Road program might be another useful suggestion, Harper said.
“I’d like to revitalize that program. I would adopt my road since I feel like I’m paying child support on it, anyway,” he said.
Trash receptacles should be placed where people congregate, Harper said.
He displayed photos of Central Park, where he said trash cans have plastic bags. “We need to make it easy for people to dispose of things properly,” Harper said.
Also, Harper suggested a handyman exchange at the town’s recycling center, where residents could swap rolls of tar paper, or any other products they had no use for, for paint and other supplies.
Many communities have no trash problems, he said, quoting Abraham Lincoln, whose words, “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives,” adorn receptacles in Stony Brook.
A litter committee might prove to be the answer, Harper said; volunteers could be recruited, community groups could get involved, students could pick up trash as a means of earning community service credit, and Scouts could help in the effort.
Harper also took a stand for reusable canvas bags, which he said he and his wife take to the market. The bags could have slogans and names of local businesses printed on them, he said.
Addressing Harper’s suggestions, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said adding additional trash cans becomes problematic.
“Trash cans become a magnet for all garbage,” he said.
At one point, the town decided to remove the cans, but people continued to leave bags of trash in the same spot, anyway, Russell said.
The problem worsens during the months when the town is highly frequented, Russell said. “Effectively, we go into the trash business seven months a year,” he said. “It’s a difficult thing to manage.”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty said perhaps schools could not only offer community service credit to students picking up trash, but could also participate in Adopt-A-Road programs.
The supervisor said many volunteers exist in town and community-driven efforts, where residents partner with the town, have traditionally done well.
Those groups, who host beach cleanup and other initiatives, don’t have to pay for the transfer station after the efforts, the supervisor said.
Russell agreed a litter or trash committee would be a good option to explore.
At a recent educational forum held on the environment, Russell also addressed Harper’s concerns.
Asked about trash, Russell said, “Litter is a huge problem,” but agreed the anti-littering law in town is difficult to enforce. The town’s department of public works, though, is “excellent at maintaining litter. If you’re finding litter on town property, I think it hasn’t been there for that long.”
Raccoons and feral cats drag litter out of cans and onto beaches, he said, other beach goers leave trash behind.
“I don’t know how I regulate bad behavior, or manners. I wish I could,” he said, adding if a resident sees an area with litter, to bring it to his attention.
