A piece of school notebook paper takes thirty days and thirty nights to break down into pieces small enough to become part of the earth again.  A soda can takes 200 years!!!!!  It costs $15 million a year just to pick up the litter in our national parks.

     Litter hurts animals.  They can get their heads trapped in glass jars and metal cans when trying to lick out the contents.  Always rinse them out.  Put the lids back on jars and crush metal and plastic food containers before recycling them.  Yoplait yogurt containers are especially dangerous to animals because of the unusual shape.  If you use this product, make sure you crush the container before recycling.

It’s not just cans and jars that can hurt animals.  Animals can get entangled and killed or maimed in fishing lines that have been discarded carelessly.  They can get lead poisoning from eating lead sinkers that fishermen throw away.  They can get mercury poisoning from batteries that are carelessly tossed out.  They can get their heads stuck in the plastic that holds six packs together.  Never put these in the garbage without first cutting each ring.   Don’t break glass jars and bottles in the street.  Broken glass can hurt animals and people too.  Lots of kids and people who don’t know any better litter – it’s easy to just toss garbage on the ground rather than disposing of it properly.

     Don’t ever throw food or litter out of a car window.   It attracts animals to the road where they can be killed or injured by other cars.

     You might want to organize a litter patrol.  Get your family, friends and neighbors to help you.  Each person should carry a sturdy bag for collecting cans, bottles, papers and gum and candy wrappers along the road, in the woods, on the beach or around a pond.  If you do it every fourth Saturday, you could pick a different site each month.  Keep an eye out for – and always pick up - cans, wrappers, six-pack rings and so on.  Recycle what you can.