Neighbor News
Earth Day ‘22: MIDWEST Epicenter of Frequent Deaths by Waste Littering
MICHIGAN, OHIO, WISCONSIN sees increasing Victim numbers. DETROIT, INDIANAPOLIS still on "USA 15 Big, Litter Polluted Cities" list.
by STEVE SPACEK (TWITTER @litterscorecard)
April 22, 2022 – The MIDWEST 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.
Five Midwestern STATES - Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin --carry the lion shares of totals for these type of deaths. But three of the states saw notable increase in waste littering incident fatalities in 2020 (latest year available) than from the previous year. Ohio saw three more deaths; Michigan, four. But Wisconsin 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.
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In 2020, the Scorecard placed Detroit and Indianapolis on the "USA's 15 Big, Litter Polluted Cities" list: metropolises with a 375,000 or more population that suffer outrageous, large expanses of unremoved solid waste. Wastes “quite capable of breeding, transmitting Covid and numerous other unhealthy viruses and diseases,” said Spacek.
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. Yet the problem lies in lessening the efforts of source litterers and increasing efforts by authorized abatement individuals. For the Midwest as a whole, studies show Cigarette Smokers, Construction/Landscape Workers, and Fast Foodies as the three population clusters most prone to litter anytime, anywhere. "Educating these culprits not to engage in illegal behaviors, and insisting State DOT's and local public maintenance personnel, their contractors and volunteers to do much better work, may help further reduce high yet senseless death tolls,” Spacek said.