D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February
2009
Talking Trash
For Keep Las Cruces Beautiful, business is picking up
— litter, that is.
By Jeff Berg
Keep Las Cruces Beautiful has a big job on its hands and not many hands to work with. Part of the city's codes-enforcement office, Keep Las Cruces Beautiful (KLCB) has a staff consisting of coordinator Craig Fenske, who came to Las Cruces about two years ago from Bellingham, Wash., two work-study students and a shared administrative assistant.
Fenske's responsibilities include not only the reduction and harvesting of the incredible amount of trash that lies, flies and floats around Las Cruces, but also the clean-up of the nonstop graffiti that blights the city.
Fenske is not deterred by this dual challenge, however, and carries a positive and strong work ethic and a 30-gallon bag filled with hope into his job.
"We work with organizations and groups around the city that sign up to do a neighborhood clean-up," Fenske explains. "Often times they will call us to arrange to do a cleanup event." He notes that a local soccer team is scheduled to do a neighborhood cleanup later this very day.
In Fenske's arsenal are any number of educational programs for young people and schools, Neighborhood Pride Zones, and support from groups such as New Mexico Clean and Beautiful and the national Keep America Beautiful organization, of which the city is a member. Las Cruces recently received an award from Keep America Beautiful, in fact, for its continued participation in all of the organization's programs, such as Trek for Trash. In the last Las Cruces Trek for Trash event, held in October, 370 folks gathered to collect an alarming seven tons of trash, which exceeded the year's goal of five tons. One could classify that as bittersweet news.
Ever wonder where all of this trash comes from and why? According to Keep America Beautiful, people litter because they feel no sense of ownership, even though frequently littered areas such as parks and beaches are public property. They believe someone else — a park maintenance or highway worker — will pick up after them. The organization says there is no such thing as a "stereotypical" litterbug.
Nonetheless, there are a lot of them. Nationwide, litterbugs are responsible nationwide for the 20 percent of roadside litter that comes from fast-food packaging, 19 percent in the form of cigarette butts, and another 19 percent in the form of household trash, with 16 percent in the form of non-alcoholic beverage containers.
New Mexico lags behind other states in combating this problem. Attempts to require deposits on beverage containers have been soundly defeated in Santa Fe, thanks to the industries that fill those same containers. Recycling in Las Cruces is awaiting another attempt at curbside recycling that's just started to take root. (Unlike El Paso's amazing and very successful curbside program, however, it will not be mandatory.) And Las Cruces has yet to consider a surcharge or ban on plastic bags.
Fenske's program does rely on all of the tried and true methods of combating litter. These include sponsoring educational programs in schools, which seem to be among the best tools in the box, and having community organizations or businesses partake in the Adopt a Spot program. A nicely done and informative online quarterly newsletter is also available from KLCB.
Then, of course, there's community service. Judging by the logbook, several "guests" at the codes-enforcement office had already arrived this morning to work off their community service sentences, and a very agitated young man is sitting in the small waiting room, awaiting his project. Prisoners are also used for cleanup duty along the interstates and busier streets and boulevards around town.
Nonetheless, you still wind up paying for other people's bad behavior. KLCB does receive some funding from grants. But the state organization, New Mexico Clean & Beautiful, run through the tourism department, "is charged with eliminating litter from the state to the maximum practical extent and the primary duty is to allocate funds generated by the Litter Control and Beautification Act, derived from a $.50 motor vehicle registration fee, to communities and Keep New Mexico Beautiful, Inc."
Graffiti removal takes up a lot of time for city staff. Fenske says that crews are out three to four days a week, for approximately 16 hours per week, working on this nonstop problem.
But the job has to be done, and there certainly is no end in sight. A casual scan of other "keep our city beautiful" Web sites and news sources reveals that the need for litter abatement is not letting up. In fact, it is probably getting worse.
So, remember, as you watch those TV spots in which the tear rolls down the cheek of Italian-American actor Iron Eyes Cody ("Cody," born Espera DeCorti, was not actually an Indian) standing at the roadside when a bag of fast-food wrappers lands at his feet, and the voiceover narrator says in a sad but firm voice, "People start pollution, people can stop it."
That means you.
Keep Las Cruces Beautiful's next Trek for Trash will be Saturday, April 25, 8 a.m.-noon. If you would like to participate or visit with Craig Fenske about any of the other KLCB projects and programs, call 528-4723 or visit the KLCB Web site at www.las-cruces.org/police/klcb
Senior writer Jeff Berg insists that you recycle this paper
if you are not keeping it for posterity.