You are right Mary. Since we've started charging fees for trash at New England dumps, litter, and illegal dumping have increased dramatically. Gooseberry Island where I sail, is part of a state "reservation". The state puts out a large trash can to help combat the litter, but some locals bring their trash from home and routinely fill the barrel. I am amazed by the quantity of litter, and that it seems most people in our society think nothing of it. I used to pick up what I saw, but now there is just too much. It could be a full time job at that small beach alone! The streets and highways up here are loaded with trash, most of it plastic. Less and less of the litter is actually recycled. What is collected/picked up, is usually burned up here. I wonder what the effects of all that unnatural stuff in our air is going to do to future generations. Then there is the threat to wildlife. Plastics left outside are the gift that keeps on killing, much like lost lobster pots, balloons, ribbons, fishing line, plastic bags, and things like Yoplait Yogurt containers kill huge numbers of wildlife every year. The trash/litter is so bad at Horseneck Beach, that they use machines to rake the beach, and then build dunes of trash and sand. They don't look or smell nice, but so far they can't process the trash/litter in any more responsible way. There is a strange thing going on in our society today. I see it at every level.I call it "The King's New Clothes Syndrome". It is people failing to see what is right in front of them, and refusing to take responsibility for it. I work for Marriott, one of the best hotel companies in the world. I routinely see management ignoring, or refusing to recognize things that end up costing the company tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know what can be done. I think perhaps people really need to suffer in order to wake up. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />