Litter consequences

Dealing with the problem of litter requires many approaches. One is prevention. One is cleanup. Another is creating and maintaining beautification projects. Each approach has a variety of facets, and the prevention approach may be the most multifaceted.

Preventing litter includes educating a generation or two about much more than the visual problem litter causes. There's the cost of cleanup -- the Missouri Department of Transportation spends $6 million a year-- and the cost of sanitation problems created by some of the things that get carelessly tossed out.

Prevention also include establishing legal consequences for littering. Currently in Missouri, littering can be a class A misdemeanor resulting in up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. But law enforcement agencies do not place a high priority on filling up jails with litterbugs.

State Rep. Rod Jetton of Marble Hill, Mo., saw plenty of highway litter four years ago when he walked 230 miles to Jefferson City to draw attention to highway needs. Now he has proposed legislation that would raise the bar on litter penalties. Under his proposed bill, offenders convicted of littering would be required to perform 40 hours of community service -- picking up illegally deposited garbage, perhaps? -- and pay a fee of $600.

Jetton hopes the increased penalties for littering will be an incentive to law enforcement officials to be more aggressive in collaring offenders.

Community service sounds much more productive than jail time for litterers. At a minimum, Jetton's proposal will make Missourians think about the litter problem. And that will go a long way to help educate the state's residents and visitors that litter is a serious problem that cannot go unpunished.

An effective program that deals with litter goes far beyond arresting and convicting litterbugs. But if there are some folks who just don't see the problem and continue to throw there garbage wherever they want, there should be stiff consequences waiting for them.