RIVERS, HIGHWAYS AREN'T DUMPING GROUNDS

There are some 2,700 miles of shoreline along the Ohio River and its main tributaries between Illinois and Pennsylvania. Cleaning up all the litter along such a vast area would seem like an impossible task. But dozens of cleanup teams will be out Saturday doing what they can to remove the trash. Last year, more than 22,000 volunteers picked up 11,000 tons of river garbage.

This is also the season for river travelers -- some paddle canoes, others use rafts and some swim -- who will wind up in Cape Girardeau on their way to New Orleans in an effort to draw attention to the Mississippi River and the need to clean it up.

Highway litter continues to be a costly problem, even though volunteers who have adopted stretches of roads have made a dent in the overall cleanup effort.

But it is still disappointing to see motorists and their passengers using city streets and highways for dumping grounds. It would be nice to think that huge cleanup efforts like the one along the Ohio River will remind people of the consequences of their littering and trashy habits.