By E.J. Smith

Greetings Elizabethton!

Well, Well, Well, hasn’t the weather been wonderful this past week? We love those cool mornings; our daily walk has become more pleasant and our moods improved. What more can we ask for?

One thing I can ask the citizens of Carter County is this: why do some people ignore the signs at the recycling centers? They clearly say no plastic bags, only numbers 1 & 2 plastics, no trash, etc. I went to the center at the corner of E. Mill St. and N. Lynn this past Saturday to put my plastic in to be recycled. I found dumpsters overstuffed with garbage, plastic bags, and people there trying to stuff more in the already overflowing receptacles. You know the ones: people too rushed or too lazy to go to another recycling place, which is just down behind Tractor Supply and easy to get to. The county tries very hard to keep Carter County beautiful and some citizens just don’t care enough to use the correct receptacles and follow the rules to keep it that way. It is an unsightly spectacle to see them overflowing with trash on the ground around them! Talking to some employees at the main center on Cherokee Drive, I learned that the centers fill up so fast that they cannot empty them fast enough to keep the areas clean, so do not blame them.

The same goes for small trash cans. On my morning walk, I see trash cans (not full ones) with refuse laid on the lip of the can right where the door flap is: all one has to do is push the flap and drop the garbage in. How hard is that? Well, too hard for some people, apparently. Are they just too lazy to spend almost no energy pushing that tiny door or too defiant/self-important to go by the rules? Either one, I guess. I understand not agreeing with some rules, but these are made for the benefit of all of us who live here and are easy to adhere to. Trust me, they are not made to aggravate anyone, but to keep our towns and county beautiful.

Whether my dog and I walk the river trail at Sycamore Shoals State Park or the trail behind the hospital, we always observe trash that has been thrown or dropped on the ground. I carry gloves and an extra plastic bag to put it in to get rid of later in an appropriate place. Why do they drop it in the first place? What’s wrong with stuffing a tissue in your pocket until you reach a trash can? Unless it is a tissue covering dog waste. Believe me, I reached down to pick up a tissue one morning and noticed that it smelled like dog waste. Well, I do not mind picking up a piece of trash, but I will not pick anyone else’s dog’s business! Again, the signs clearly say, “$50.00 fine for leaving your dog’s waste on or close to the trail.” Is there any more clear way of saying you will be fined? Some people need to pay money to learn to do the right thing, I guess…

I guess one could ask, “why do you talk about rules so much? Well, it is because I want my and your grandchildren to have a clean, healthy, beautiful world to live in. There are so many changes we would like to see, but usually there is not much we can do to see those changes come to fruition. Keeping our home and surroundings is one of the things we can change right now. Let us all work together to leave our children and grandchildren with the memory that it was us that made their world a better place to live. They will also see us working to achieve these goals and will do the same. What a positive legacy we have an opportunity to leave for them.

That’s my take on things. What “burns your biscuits”? burnsmybiscuit@gmail.com

See you out there and you are in my prayers,

E.J.