January 2001- The Kentucky General Assembly has convened its annual session and, included in its work will be an effort to clean up highway litter and provide for universal garbage collection. This subject has been under review and debate for the last two sessions of the legislature and has been the subject of strong disagreement.

One of the proposals, which has been reintroduced, is the Bottle Bill…and another is a referendum on the bottle bill. Both of these proposals do not present a reasonable solution to the problem they purport to change.

The problem of illegal dumps and major litter problems is the fact that universal garbage collection is not available in the entire state. In fact, only 24 counties offer this service. The Governor is proposing that such universal collection be established. We applaud this effort as it calls for local officials to implement the program, and for those who receive the service to pay for it. In our view, this is as it should be. And, with universal collection, a major part of the trash will be taken care of, and with proper clean up, illegal dumps should become a thing of the past.

Additionally, Senator Harris has introduced a litter abatement proposal, which draws from the "Don't Mess With Texas" program, which is one of the most successful programs in America. Litter in Texas was reduced by over 70% in 5 years with this program in place. And, a promotion program in and of itself did not do this…but it was accompanied with other programs including an education component, and work with local governments to promote enforcement of existing laws, and assistance in clean up of local litter. Senator Harris's proposal has all these elements and will work to solve the problem in Kentucky.

Operation PRIDE has been most successful in marshaling volunteers throughout a 40 county area in southeastern Kentucky. And, the program has cleaned up illegal dumps…picked up litter, and instilled in its people a new sense of pride and well being. This same attitude can be engendered throughout Kentucky with the adoption of Senator Harris's bill.

Kentucky has made great strides in cleaning up its countryside. But, much work remains to be done. We need to enforce the covered load laws that require loads in open beds of trucks to be covered if it could blow out along the highway. The laws applying to littering need to be stringently enforced. The $500 fine for littering has become a joke in Kentucky because everyone knows it will not be enforced. We do not need additional laws on the books when existing laws are not enforced. SB 2 which was passed in 1991 rightfully assigned the responsibility for solid waste, garbage and litter to local governments. We need to see to it that those existing laws are enforced. This can be done.

With the enforcement of existing laws…and the adoption of garbage collection and a litter abatement program which includes and education and awareness campaign, Kentucky will make great strides in handling this problem. Senator Harris' bill includes a measurement of litter, and a requirement that it be checked every three years so we can objectively measure improvement. This takes the emotion out of the issue, and gives us FACTS that we can work with. No more "push polls" and no more emotional diatribes and demagoguery on the issue. Let's move on and take care of this, and pay for it out of the general funds of the state. If this is a societal issue, and is of such prime importance, it needs to be dealt with out of existing revenues. We hope the legislature will act on this measure in a positive way so we can put this issue behind us.