Clean up to grow: Getting control of trash problem will help area in long run

You have seen the mess — paper cups and plastic bags, a food wrapper tossed by the side of the road.

Sometimes, there is so much trash that it is hard to tell where the grass begins and the dump ends.

And you have seen the offenders, too. You might be behind someone traveling down a city street or along a highway, see his or her window open and see something come sailing out of the car.

And you have probably commented to someone over the last few years about just how trashy North Carolina’s highways look or about the amount of litter in the city and county.

Well, now is the time to start doing something about it.

Goldsboro officials have launched a new litter hotline. To participate, all you have to do is report someone you see defacing the city’s neighborhoods or identify an area that needs to be cleaned.

The area gets cleaned up — and if we are all lucky — someone gets a nice fine to remind him or her that this is a city that values the beauty of its residential and commercial areas.

If Goldsboro is going to improve and grow, it has to look like it is an up and comer, not a has been. Cleaning up the trashis a good place to start.

This is a project that will benefit everyone. A more attractive county will attract residential and business investment. That is the key to a healthy future for Wayne County and Goldsboro.

And all it takes to be a part of that effort is a phone call.

Published in Editorials on March 23, 2006 10:56 AM