Litter

Baltimore County leaders pledged to work together to make Back River trash-free by 2020, signing a "trash treaty" on Tuesday at the watershed. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz joined council members, state lawmakers and leaders of the Back River Restoration Committee in announcing plans to implement regional strategies aimed at reducing litter. "We have not used every tool at our disposal for the environment," Kamenetz said. The county installed a trash boom at the site last April.

How entertaining it was to hear on the news recently that the environmentalist wackos who inhabit this state are at it again with a new proposal to charge retail customers 5 cents each for the use of plastic bags at stores. This is a nuisance tax proposal, plain and simple. Its passage would have little to no economic significance or benefit to anyone, save for the state of Maryland, which would then put these funds into its coffers in the name of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay It is absurd to even consider such legislation.

Is litter like murder? Not exactly, perhaps — but it's worse than you probably think. According to donttrashaz.com, more than 25,000 car accidents a year are linked to litter, scores of which result in fatalities. Of course, the environmental effects of litter are well known. Trash in the streets gets blown into the sewer system. From there, it clogs up the sewers and waterways or flows out into bays and estuaries. Chemicals and toxins from plastic bottles leech into water systems.

Everyone in the neighborhood knows Mary Dantzler won't tolerate trash on the sidewalks or in the streets. A homeowner in Druid Heights for 15 years, she sweeps every day and believes along the way she's cleaning out all sorts of other urban ills. "I've stayed on the job with a broom," said Dantzler, who was out Saturday morning with a couple of dozen other neighbors, business owners and church members to pick up in some other corners and alleys. They joined about 2,000 people in 124 Baltimore neighborhoods who were participating in the city's fall cleanup day. In addition to collecting old food wrappers and plastic bottles, they hoped to build an anti-littering ethic in a town where many still don't think twice about tossing waste onto the street or out of the car window.

Did politicians exempt themselves from the litter laws the same way they exempted themselves from the "do not call" list? The primary election was weeks ago, yet countless signs for those who lost remain, many illegally placed on public land. It's time for these signs to come down. At what point do they officially become litter? The offending campaigns should be fined. Steve Raskin, Parkton

Students from the Children's Guild who sailed the bay and collected litter from the Inner Harbor shoreline throughout this month found a creative outlet for the trash they brought back to their Glen Burnie school: turning it into a sailboat. The 20 children, who are coping with autism and emotional disorders, converted their stinky collection into a work of art Wednesday, sculpting a sailboat from cardboard, soda bottles and Styrofoam. They decorated its hull with cast-off candy wrappers and snack bags and filled its jib with smiling photos of themselves, taken during their four-week summer course, which showed them their role in protecting the environment.

A pontoon boat, filled with empty crab traps, lists at the dock on Middle River, its registration long expired. A mast of a newer sailboat, submerged at its pier, bobs in the waves, but its keel is mired in the river bottom. The beached hull of a long-abandoned powerboat has morphed into a creek marker. Ted Miller, a lifelong Middle River resident, looks at the shore across from his waterfront home and points to these and other glaring examples of the growing problem of derelict boats in eastern Baltimore County.

Brian Schilpp, who has spent his life along Back River, said he was never more proud of that heritage than on Wednesday, when he was overlooking a trash boom filled with waterlogged garbage. Baltimore County installed the heavy-duty vinyl boom last month at a cost of $80,000. The 700-foot-long entrapment device, held in place by seven anchors, has been stationed at the headwaters of the Back River, a waterway often reviled for its foul smells and trash-lined banks. While the boom halts the flow of debris downstream, it also shows how much trash is dumped into area waterways.

After a record-breaking winter, the beginning of spring in Baltimore could not be more welcome. With beautiful weather and the start of baseball season, spring brings many opportunities to get outdoors and enjoy our city. However, the melting snow drifts revealed a dirty secret: thousands upon thousands of cigarette butts littering our streets and sidewalks. Baltimore faces a huge pollution problem from littered cigarette butts, which is only exacerbated as we spend more time outdoors.

Recycling is up in Baltimore, water consumption and home electricity use down. Thousands of trees have been planted in the past year to green up the urban landscape, while new bicycle lanes and bus and water taxi service offer residents cleaner ways to get around town. But the city's waters remain too filthy to swim in, and the streets are still littered with trash and illegal dumping. Nor is it clear just how many "green" jobs have been created. A little over a year after the City Council adopted an ambitious plan for improving the environmental, economic and social welfare of all its residents, Baltimore is making incremental progress toward sustainability on a number of fronts, while progress remains elusive on others.