LETTER: Litter is a real problem in our community

I have participated in several Rio Rancho community cleanups like the one mentioned in the article this (weekend). I have helped to fill those large roll-off dumpsters.

When I walk my dog out in the open space west of where I live in the North Hills neighborhood, I often see household furniture and renovation waste and other items dumped among the scrub brush along the dirt roads out there. A few days ago I filed a notice to the city, via the Report Rio Rancho link, about a sectional sofa and three plastic pallets and a pile of floor tiles.

Over the years I've seen other furniture, appliances, personal documents, paints and other household chemicals, and construction materials out there.

But here is another, more public problem: Litter along our streets.

When I walk my dog every morning, I bring along a sturdy plastic shopping bag and pick up enough trash to fill it: fast-food containers, beer and soda and energy drink cans, and many mini and pint and sometimes larger liquor bottles.

I have picked up probably thousands of liquor bottles in the 12 years that I've been walking in the neighborhood.

I'm also starting to see discarded vape devices. I hope they aren't a fire hazard.

I deposit as much of the litter I gather — particularly the plastic liquor and water and soda bottles and fast-food straws and cups and lids — in my Waste Management recycle bin.

There is a lot of evidence of booze and fast-food being consumed by people driving vehicles around my neighborhood and on Unser Boulevard and on Northern Boulevard and on Paseo del Volcan, and probably on most other main roads in and around Rio Rancho. I'm sure that's true throughout the state.

I think it would be great if New Mexico required deposits on those booze bottles as some other states do.

But I suspect that people who toss those bottles and trash along our roads are doing it because they don't want to be caught with the evidence in their vehicles in case they are stopped by police or before they get home and are scolded by a family member.

James P. Brown

Rio Rancho