Aaron Bartlett, a CalTrans volunteer picks up trash along Interstate 780. (photo courtesy of Steve Morgan)

By Steve Morgan
Special to the Herald

This is a sequel to the article my wife, Sindy Harris, wrote about our experiences picking up garbage along  Interstate 780 and its adjoining on/off ramps through Caltrans’ Adopt-A-Highway program. Sindy posted her observations about the type of trash that women litter.  She hypothesized that because women are more concerned generally with their appearance than men, are often tasked with grooming the family and probably like Frappucinos or other sweet icy drinks more than men, the wide array of litter, which is — tooth care products, cotton swabs, wet wipes, tissues, icy Starbucks cups and straws — are probably thrown out by a female or her children.  If my wife’s theory holds true for women litterers, it should hold true that male litterers follow a pattern as well.
It is my turn now to opine on my gender. What kind of man litters?  First, I want to define littering as a deliberate, intentional act of throwing something out of your car or truck, knowing you are making Benicia’s roadways your personal trash can. I say this because I believe many male litterers are often unintentional ones.  A large amount of the garbage on our freeways appears to be due to items blown out of laborers’ truck beds:  plastic 5 gallon pails, roofing tiles, ceiling insulation, flashing, tools, etc. While certainly not all laborers are male, a considerable number are, and while this is “unintentional” litter, it trashes our freeways and our community nonetheless. The obvious solution is more care in securing the tools of your trade, both for your sake, your employer’s and Benicia’s. Indeed, I have collected a large array of perfectly good tools and buckets over the last several months!
Now, to the heart of the case:  What kind of man litters? These are my observations. Male litter is likely to be the scores of cheap vodka bottles, beer bottles and boxes and Skoal cans with bottles half full of sputum. There is also something very interesting about this litter.  It is virtually 100 percent of the time the same brands! Statistically, what are the odds of that?     Some detective work by me at a local convenience store revealed that the gobs of empty vodka bottles are ALL 200 ml plastic bottles from a brand I’ve never heard of.     This brands sells for $2.99, the cheapest on the shelf.  If I were trying to catch the male offender, this would be a significant clue.  But, is he a teenager partying with his friends on the cheap in his mom’s car and throwing out the incriminating evidence?   Or is he a rich adulterer, getting rid of the evidence of an affair before he arrives home to his wife?  Or just a guy who pours 200 ml into his cup of coffee every morning and tosses the bottle?  After all, vodka is largely odorless.  Whichever scenario, the suspect is, most likely, MALE.
The same is true of beer bottles and cans. While I cannot say, they are ALL the same brand, like vodka, I can attest to the fact that they are almost exclusively off-brand that sell in mega-pack sizes, for cheap. I know the pack sizes because I find the boxes for 6-packs, 12-packs, 18-packs and 24-packs of 12-oz. cans and exactly the same packages for 12 oz. bottles.  Thankfully, cans are much more prevalent than bottles, as shattered glass from beer bottles is a hazard for anyone on a roadway, including other drivers. While women certainly drink beer, the mass of cans and bottles found together would imply that a male person (or persons) was imbibing.  Few women can down a six-pack of beer let alone a 24-pack, and I know more than a few men that can!
Chewing tobacco is the worst. Not so much from the empty Skoal canisters discarded everywhere, but for the repurposed plastic water bottles containing that disgusting brown fluid generated from chewing tobacco. Empty plastic bottles, half to two-thirds full, are a common pickup item.  I sadly must attribute these items to my fellow males.   While stereotypical, is it at all believable that a woman is chewing Skoal in her car while driving and spitting into an  empty bottle and then throwing it out onto the freeway or interstate ramp?
An interesting behavior unique to male litterers is their claim to “territory,” a certain on or off ramp, for instance, that they always choose to litter.  I continually find the items discussed above at precisely the same locations every time Sindy and I pick up. For example, consider those cheap vodka bottles. We find the same brand, of the same size, on the same on ramp every time we pick up the Military ramp heading toward Southampton.  And, those sputum-fluid bottles are almost exclusive to the East Fifth offramp in the direction away from Vallejo.
I hope one can see that the male who litters appears to be a very different individual than the female who does.  Perhaps because I want to defend my gender, I will opine that male litterers are fewer in number.  Because male litterers, for the most part, appear to throw the same exact type of trash away in the same place, perhaps there are just a few male wrongdoers. I can hope that for men. We get a bad name too often. Come on men, show a litter respect.

Steve Morgan and his wife Sindy Harris are volunteers with CalTrans’ Adopt a Highway program.

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