I Hate McDonald's Trash More Than Any Other Trash

[ThomWV]

I wonder about 'corporate responsibility'? I don't even know what the phrase means. Do you?

The closest McDonald's to my rural home is 16 miles west of here, the next closest is 18 miles to the east. About once a week either my wife or I walk up our road and pick up trash. The road is not really 'our road' of course. Its a state road but it bisects our wooded property for about a quarter mile and so we think of it as our own and we keep it cleaned up.

Beer cans and bottles are the most common trash and they annoy the hell out of me. They aren't the worst trash though. Its McDonald's burger wrappers, McDonald's drink cups, McDonald's garbage of every ilk. My ditches are speckled with the blight of the "Golden Arches". The shit is everywhere. How much trash does that company put on the streets every day? Drive-up windows with lines that stretch around the buildings, day after day, week in and week out; ton after ton of soon-to-be litter handed out with a smile to grease-gobbling idiots; half of whom will toss it out the window in an artery-clogged heartbeat.

Does that obesity-inducing company have no responsibility what so ever for all the garbage bearing their logo that litters our countryside? Its not just here - obviously - the shit is everywhere!

[donco6]

1. I hate trash too, but . . .

don't you think the people throwing it out the window bear more resposibility than McDonalds?

[Wcross]

13. McDonalds has a tiny little "don't litter" logo on the bag.

While its true that they can't be held responsible for the behaviour of their slob customers they could make a little bit more effort. Maybe they could put up a sign saying littering is against the law? Maybe make it a little more obvious?

[donco6]

24. A sign where?

Not to belabor, but I doubt this guy wants a sign on the road that bisects his property. And really, who doesn't know by now that littering is slovenly? Do they really need signs? Or do they just need their lazy asses kicked?

[Wcross]

27. "Please pull ahead to the third window for your ass kicking"

Yes, that is a good idea! If only we could pull that one off!

My thought was a large sign right past the pickup window with the fine for littering clearly stated. Maybe a reminder to not be a slob.

[donco6]

35. Actually, I like the FIRST ONE!

I've worked my share of fast food. One day I was out picking up the lot and there was a woman sitting in her car stuffing a burger down her gullet. She took a last bubbling slurp off of her Coke, then casually dropped the whole thing right out her car window and drove away. I just stood there shaking my head.

I do think the littering fines are far too low. And rarely enforced.

[The Stranger]

32. Don't you think McDonald's knows where their wrappers end up?

[donco6]

36. Don't you think [blank] knows where their wrappers end up?

The list is endless. Why is McDonalds the sole culprit here. That's all I'm saying. EVERY business creates waste. EVERYONE throws trash away. If people weren't such pigs, we wouldn't have a problem.

[The Stranger]

41. That is a non-sequiter. McDonald's is profiting off its paper products, but not paying the economic

price for their disposal. Knowing that their customers will discard their product wrappings, it is incumbent upon McDonald's to address the issue with biodegradable wrappers or otherwise.

[donco6]

42. Their wrappers are biodegradable.

They made a big splash about that several years ago when they switched from foam packaging to paper-based products.

My only point is that McDonalds isn't the only culprit here - and perhaps not even the worst. If you disagree, that's fine. There's no point in arguing about it.

[BOSSHOG]

2. I bet Mississippi is trashier then West Virginia

and trash is quite a shame. But, McDonald's doesn't distribute the trash on the highways, our fellow citizens do. And I believe that is a direct reflection of ignorance. And I have no doubt Mississippians are more ignorant then West Virgnians. There has been a big brewhaha going for months on the gulf coast about the trashiness of the area and of cours its all someone else's fault, and "someone should do something it." I offered a silly suggestion, keep it in your car till ya get home. That must be way to hard to comprehend.

[NightWatcher]

3. Why does McD's shit show up more than others?

I'm an avid sea kayaker and everytime I go out into the rivers near my home and the beach I pick up a small grocery bag's worth of trash that is floating in the rivers. I will always find some type of McGarbage. Being close to the beach, I will always find beer cans and such, but the golden arches stand out. I also always find those plastic grocery bags that are everywhere. I think that if you take the garbage back to wherever it came from they should have to reimburse you as though you were returning a glass bottle- like we did in the old days. As a kid, me and my friends could find enough bottles in a couple of hours fo us all to get candy and soda.

Corporate responsibility, I say make them pay a return fee when confronted with their own garbage. Not an absorbatant amount, but just a nickle or dime per piece of shite that we bring back.

[lazyriver]

4. I second your McD's garbage hatred and add a very close

second most hated litter source - cigarette butts. Last September on a two mile round trip walk on an extremely rural road here in Maine, my wife and I collected 435 cigarette butts from the road surface and soft shoulders. A month later on the same walk we picked up 200+ more. Our litter picking walks have become a regularity and the shit keeps piling up.

Isn't a curious observation that the vast majority of trash (at least around here) comes from people's vices (Cigarettes, beer bottles & fast food)?

[NightWatcher]

6. it's the "fat, lazy American syndrome"

fat from McD's amd too damn lazy to pick up their own garbage. Regarding the cig butts. I know people who say that they dont litter, but for some reason they will toss out their butts. I've even heard people say that they are paper and will decompose in a few days...days? wha. I'm with you, I think that it says a lot about the dirty lazy Americans with their nasty, slothful vices.

[lazyriver]

16. I don't have any hard facts at hand but

I believe cig butts contain fiberglass or some other synthetic material. A long time ago in an environmental science class, I think we learned they took at the least dozens of years to decompose.

On a recent 60 mile backpacking trip thru the backcountry of Glacier National Park in MT, my two friends and I picked up over 100 cig butts from the trails and the primitive campsites where we stayed. Un-friggin' believable to me that people would make such an effort to get to such a beautiful and remote place and then shit it up with their trash. Let's not even talk about the potential forest fire risks from flicking butts on the ground. Who the hell raised these people to be so irresponsible and slobbish?

Should corporations be held accountable for their trash? Absolutely, on some level. However, the distribution of the trash is due to the people who consume the products produced by these corporations and think nothing of tossing the waste out a car window onto someone else's once scenic stretch of roadway.

[Wcross]

14. How about ashtray dumpers?

On my road some fool has taken to dumping out his/her ashtray. One big old pile of butts.

[lazyriver]

17. Oh yeah. You can always find dumped ashtray

formations at almost every stop light you come to. I guess some people have a minute to spare while waiting for the green light and figure, "What the hell, why don't I dump some trash on the ground".

[Wcross]

18. I have had numerous incidents- I am thinking about cameras.

If it were just litter I wouldn't go to the expense. I live on a quiet rural road on a stretch where you wouldn't think anyone lived there. Over the past three years I have had to deal with 6 dumped animals. Meth cookers dumped two dead dogs (test subjects I am told) in the ditch right in front of my property. A stolen mailbox and the occasional person who decides to stop and piss in my driveway.
I am to the point I am going to set up a surveillance system as soon as I scrape the cash together. I try to never go half ass-ed so it is going to cost several thousand dollars. Day/night wireless with infrared and I want the picture good enough to capture plate numbers.

[lazyriver]

19. I wish I had the means to set something like that up

at a particular spot down the road from me. In the past five years there have been two couches, three TV's, an entire four cylinder car engine, an entire transmission and rear end, two refrigerators, a 35 gallon drum of used motor oil and more automotive paint cans than I can count dumped in this particularly secluded stretch of road. I also found the carcass of a recently (and hastily) butchered moose in the same spot last fall. It had to have been poached by one of our self proclaimed "Registered Maine Poachers" which are a scary bunch in and of themselves. I suspect the same person is frequenting this place and using it as a personal dump and that they might own a service station/body shop. I'd love to catch the bastard.

That meth lab stuff is scary. Meth dumps are highly toxic and extremely dangerous. Police are reporting that dumps are starting to pop up in rural areas around Maine and they are taking hazmat training in order to deal with them safely.

[Wcross]

22. Might try a "deer camera", they are inexpensive.

If it is one particular spot you could put one up off in the woods a little bit. I considered using them but I need night vision also and it wouldn't do to have a flash go off.
We have had incidences like that even though everything dumped would be taken at the dump. I don't understand what people are thinking. If I came up on someone dumping like that I believe there would be an altercation and the sheriff would be called. There would be a 500 dollar fine for dumping. All to save a 10 mile drive to the dump.

[lazyriver]

20. I wish I had the means to set something like that up

at a particular spot down the road from me. In the past five years there have been two couches, three TV's, an entire four cylinder car engine, an entire transmission and rear end, two refrigerators, a 35 gallon drum of used motor oil and more automotive paint cans than I can count dumped in this particularly secluded stretch of road. I also found the carcass of a recently (and hastily) butchered moose in the same spot last fall. It had to have been poached by one of our self proclaimed "Registered Maine Poachers" which are a scary bunch in and of themselves. I suspect the same person is frequenting this place and using it as a personal dump and that they might own a service station/body shop. I'd love to catch the bastard.

That meth lab stuff is scary. Meth dumps are highly toxic and extremely dangerous. Police are reporting that dumps are starting to pop up in rural areas around Maine and they are taking hazmat training in order to deal with them safely.

[lazyriver]

21. I wish I had the means to set something like that up

at a particular spot down the road from me. In the past five years there have been two couches, three TV's, an entire four cylinder car engine, an entire transmission and rear end, two refrigerators, a 35 gallon drum of used motor oil and more automotive paint cans than I can count dumped in this particularly secluded stretch of road. I also found the carcass of a recently (and hastily) butchered moose in the same spot last fall. It had to have been poached by one of our self proclaimed "Registered Maine Poachers" which are a scary bunch in and of themselves. I suspect the same person is frequenting this place and using it as a personal dump and that they might own a service station/body shop. I'd love to catch the bastard.

That meth lab stuff is scary. Meth dumps are highly toxic and extremely dangerous. Police are reporting that dumps are starting to pop up in rural areas around Maine and they are taking hazmat training in order to deal with them safely.

[Virginia Dare]

5. "Corporate Responsibility", it doesn't exist...

it's as mythical as unicorns.

You're not alone Thom, I'm always picking up fast food trash and other various things out of my yard. I think the teenagers that live up the street just open their car doors and toss the shit out. They probably won't learn until it's "their yard" that gets trashed.

[HereSince1628]

7. Wrappers don't litter. People do.

It had to be said. :silly:

I agree McD's wrappers are unsightly and the people who throw them there are irresponsible.

[Sweet Freedom]

8. You ought to take a picture of the trash,

send it and a letter to them, and suggest they adopt that particular stretch of road.

[cali]

9. Me too. And my circumstance are similar to yours.

I live 30 miles from the nearest McDonalds, and I still see that shit on the dirt roads near my home.

[lectrobyte]

10. Platic water bottles and plastic bags now seem to be everywhere, too.

Just how did people live 20 years ago without a bottle of water at hand every second? At least aluminum seems to be scavenged around here, which is another sad failing in a different way. I can only assume that there is so much fast food trash since folks don't really want to leave the greasy smelly wrappers in their nice cars.

[Nikia]

11. I know that their cups at least are biodegradable

Unfortunately, I know this from experience.
Better biodegradable trash on the side of the road than non biodegradable trash.

[RB TexLa]

12. So if the person who does the littering covers up the logo will you then blame them for it?

:shrug:

[Wcross]

15. That is my pet peeve.

Bud light and fast food "leavings". It is usually McDonalds or Crystals just tossed wherever they finish eating the crap. I was hoping that when they started taking credit cards the names would appear on the receipt. Yesterday I picked up an 8.04 dollar order of crystal chicken sandwich crap. I found the receipt, it was purchased at 3:12am in town but no other info on it.
If I EVER identify an individual I am going to start leaving everything I pick up off the road in their front yard. I have a history of "revenge" like that.
We have a town dump system and idiots just throw the trash bags loose in the back of their pickup trucks. If one blows off they don't stop, it becomes litter. If I see one I dig through the bag and find a name/address. It is then deposited in that persons front yard. It never seems to stay in the bag either, it gets spread out.

[DrunkenMaster]

23. Ever Seen a Plastic Forest?

I have, in Mexico. Garbage bags and other plastic refuse get blown by the wind and coat trees like a second skin until the entire forest is dead and covered in palstic.

Cheerful,eh?

[ComerPerro]

25. you're insane if you think this is McDonalds' fault.

[Wcross]

28. If not for drive through windows..........

Of course it isn't McDonalds fault. They do facilitate it by selling food out of their drive through windows though. They do little to encourage their customers to dispose of the garbage correctly.
No, it is not McDonalds fault at all. I say we need a drive through surcharge at all restaurants and convenience stores. All funds collected would go to the local sheriff's department to hire deputies. Those deputies sole responsibility would be to supervise roadside cleanup crews from the county lockup and people who are convicted of DWI's. Right now in Tennessee the DWI people spend 48 hours in jail sitting on their asses. I say they give back to the community they endangered.
Also I would encourage law enforcement to take littering seriously. Start writing tickets. Set up temporary cameras up in litter prone areas to catch offenders.
Yes, it pisses me off that much.

[ComerPerro]

29. they have trash cans, usually at about four spots in the parking lot at least

can't stop people from being assholes. I do wish littering laws were more heavily enforced, though.

[Kelly Rupert]

33. I think such a tax might be justified, yes. n/t

[Kelly Rupert]

26. This is obviously not the company's fault.

They can't help what their customers do with their garbage. Heck, they know it's a problem; each bag, wrapper, and box has a little "don't litter" message on it. They switched from foam to wax paper and cardboard a long while back. I don't really know what else they can do about it.

[Deja Q]

31. I'm inclined to agree. I don't litter. I even pick up others' litter once in a while.

Maybe people could take care of their own litter and stop using any old patch of ground as a litter box.

[WinkyDink]

30. To you, it's trash. To McD's, it's free advertising.

[Scout]

34. there is no way this is McDonald's fault. They have trash cans at the drive

through exits, in the parking lots, and inside.

[earth mom]

37. Why not put up a large sign?

"Please don't dump your trash here-That means McDonalds trash also! Fine is $500."

It sounds like the same person is dumping trash in your area to me. Probably some teenagers. A sign will surely give them the message and a dollar figure for the fine may make them think twice.

Also, I don't understand all the dumping of furniture and large trash items by the side of the road. Last month, my husband took a sofa and an armchair that were totally gone to the dump, plus some bagged trash and it cost all of $15 bucks! Whenever I see yards loaded up with cars and junk, I just can't help but wonder how people can stand to live that way. :wtf:

[PreacherCasey]

38. My ex-girlfriend used to litter. One day she threw a plastic soda cup out the window of my car...

I pulled over to the curb and asked her why she would do such a thing instead of waiting until we got home and throwing it away. She looked at me like I was crazy. I asked her to please go pick it up. She laughingly refused, so I got out and picked it up. The next time she did it I told her to pick it up or get out of my car. After an argument, she got out and I left her there. She was pissed but we stayed together for a while longer. She never littered out of my car again. When she was driving it was a different story though, sad to say. Glad I'm through with her. I get the feeling some people are just on auto-pilot throughout life.

[donco6]

43. Why would someone keep doing it?

That's just bizarre - to be that unaware of your impact on the environment.

[fishnfla]

39. There is a way to stop this

I saw this done on a road I drive to work, which passes by a Target retail store. A church on that road collected all the trash generated from that store that ended up on their roadside lawn and parking lot( the red dotted bags are hard to miss), put it in a big overflowing heap coming out of a Target shopping cart with a sign:

" Target is OPEN today!!!"

It was there for a week. Have not noticed as much garbage on the road there since.

Get a trash bin and paint the golden arches on it, fill it with the McD's trash and "thank" the 2 nearby franchises for polluting the roadway with a big sign from both directions.

See what happens

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

40. McDonalds Bears ZERO Responsibility For The Acts Of Others Littering. Zero.

I can't even begin to imagine a logical scenario in which they would.

[Wcross]

44. So whats you opinion of gun control? Just askin. n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. Completely Irrelevant To This Discussion.

[Jennicut]

46. You can blame Mickey D's for bad cardboard-tasting food, but trash?

Uh, thats our responsibility. Lots of dumb Americans who think roads are trashcans. I'll admit I eat the crap occasionally. Maybe once or twice a month. You try stopping for lunch with a 2 1/2 and 1 1/2 year old. Its more convenient to stop at a fastfood place, especially when they are extra cranky. I always regret it after though. So unsatisfying and greasy and gross.And bad for you. Oh well. I'm gonna die early anyways as I have diabetes. And no, I didn't get it from eating too much crap. I just don't have alot of insulin left. I am insulin dependent and it sucks. I am usually on a really strict diet but once in a while I just have to eat terribly as I have so few instances when I can. If I wasn't diabetic I bet I wouldn't want any of that junk. Anyways, no matter what I do I will eventually have no insulin left in my pancreas and the diabetes will just get worse.

[many a good man]

47. I made that observation 40 years ago

As a little kid growing up in the 60s I remember each year the roads getting more and more littered. The increase in litter seemed to be directly proportional to the growth of McDonalds franchises.

It was easy to make the connection because over 90% of the litter was always McDonalds trash! For that reason I've always associated McDonalds with littering.

Give a Hoot! Don't pollute.

[Tektonik]

48. lots of people litter, lots of people eat at McD's

Thus lots of the litter on the road emanates from McD's via littering dbags that eat there. This thread is quite useless, 'cept for the horror show of how maniacal some of the views on this thread are