Earth Day: Pennsylvania, NJ among "Litter-Polluted" States

by Steve Spacek @litterscorecard

WASHINGTON, D.C. April 22, 2018 - Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the Northeast USA regions' honorees for a ten "most polluted" States in America list -- where littering and dumping is visible and widespread. This information comes as "Americans, celebrating Earth Day on Sunday, April 22, 2018, stay concerned about unmitigated pollution," said Steve Spacek, director of the American State Litter Scorecard and a public performance specialist.

The states of Michigan, Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Kansas, and Oklahoma make for the remaining "most litter polluted" selection, Spacek said.

The "most litter polluted" rankings are based on evaluated indicators from government, nonprofit and private sources, including observations by citizens, deaths from collisions with rubbish, "profiled litterer" population percentages, effectiveness of litter abatement spending, public entity corruption rankings and discernible maintenance by employees, contractors and volunteers.

Mr. Spacek said recent Gallup Polls find a majority of Americans — voters and citizens alike — have a "great deal of concern" about toxic pollutants lingering at water and landed areas managed by states and localities. "Since the 1970s, Gallup has noted most in the United States believe the public sector has not worked hard enough to protect the environment," he said.

Spacek said tobacco, paper, and plastic "make for most litter and wastes one sees on public spaces, nationwide, particularly roadways. Littering damages landscapes, breeds diseases, causes injuries and deaths to animals and humans. Over 800 Americans still die every year from vehicle crashes with ordinary litter, tire scraps, tree limbs, even objects from unsecured loads appearing out of nowhere. Accidents that can occur anytime — day or night, under wet or dry conditions," he said.

Almost 60 persons within the two state, Pennsylvania-New Jersey area are killed each year in litter-attributed crash accidents, Spacek said. "For decades to the present, Pennsylvania remains a national and Northeast region leader for total deaths due to these accidents."

Though litter removals and preventative efforts are required in all states, "quite a few governments act a bit too lazy, end up doing terrible cleanup jobs," said Spacek, a member of the Rutgers Newark Public Measurement and Reporting Network. He cited a recent Reason Foundation "Annual Report of State Highway Performance," disclosing Pennsylvania and New Jersey receive among the highest possible roadway maintenance disbursements from the Federal Highway Administration--more obtained dollars per mile than economic-political rivals California, New York, Texas and Florida. "Yet task performance accountability and real legislative oversight of PennDOT and NJDOT litter and debris cleanups certainly appears questionable."

Mr. Spacek added that Pennsylvania saw dozens of members or aides of the Harrisburg-based Legislature pleading guilty or found guilty, of Federal public corruption charges. "In 2015 the Commonwealth got an "F" from the Center for Public Integrity, where 'a culture of casual acceptance for corruption......has become a self-sustaining force in the Keystone State...breeding much voter cynicism...there's little effective public pressure for reform," Spacek said, quoting the Center's report.

[Author's Note: Portions of this article appeared as a national news story release by Newswire.com from Mr. Spacek during the Earth Day 2018 weekend]

STEVE SPACEK lives in the Washington, D.C. area, actively seeks new clients desiring good governance research.