The good news is angling trash didn’t make the Top 10, still 400 pounds of trash per mile is a bit less than pristine. With a mountain of plastic the size of Africa swirling gracefully off our West Coast – 2.3 million cigarette butts picked up in a day is a drop in the hat.

… the volume of trash collected tells only part of the story. It’s the items that are found that tells us about the behavior of people enjoying the beaches and coastlines of the world.

In part, I find this worrisome – as much of our love for the out of doors was imparted by our parents on similar excursions. Whether at the beach or in the woods, “policing your trash” was always part of your exit strategy.

Us kids would gleefully grab anything foreign, while Pop doused the campfire. It was all part of the “respect Mother Nature” mantra, driving home the lesson that we’re all stewards in some fashion.

Crapping on my woods – merely because you can – is inexcusable, and when your kid upends his happy meal out the car window, save the lecture, you may have been the role model.

Technorati Tags: trash, faux outdoorsmen, respect