Problems with litter in Wharton

Profile of Wharton, Texas, USA

Wharton is a little town of approximately 10,000 people about an hour south-east of Houston, Texas. There is a lot of farmers and agricultural workers. Most other people in Wharton work in one of three categories. First, we have small community jobs like trash man, mailman, and journalism. We also have lots of educators because we have a Junior College. We also have a big clinic called Gulf Coast Medical Center. As for things for kids and teenagers there really is not much to do except play sports, ride bikes and swim at the Country Club. There are not many interesting things about Wharton except that we have a cool looking courthouse and that movie Powder was filmed in our town.
We have a big plastic plant called NanYa Plastics. It provides lots of jobs for the people of Wharton. Wharton is mainly a town of people moving from Houston.
Our environmental problem is all the litter. We have certain places in the community where people from out in the country and after a community event the parking lots and sidewalks are trashier than usual. There is not a whole lot of trash in Wharton except for a few places. Along some highways, we have trash. We think that the trash is still a problem and we need to do something.
I think that the litter problem is affected a little bit by the religion and beliefs, of Wharton. No one cares about are streets or our town because its not even on the map, and all of the little businesses don't want a Wal-Mart or something of consequence because they think that it will affect their business. What they don't know is that everybody just goes to some other city to shop and nobody shops at their stupid little store anyway. Please reply with plan that could help us.
Seventh Period Class Wharton Junior High School Grade 8: Ages 13-14
Cynthia Garrett Wharton Junior High Computer Literacy Teacher and Learner 1120 N. Rusk Street czg@tenet.edu Wharton, TX. 77488
======================================================================== From: Cynthia Zapalac Garrett
Wharton is a small town of 10,200 residents in Texas. It is about 40 minutes south of Houston. It is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone else. We have a small town square and only one main highway. Many people of Wharton have agricultural jobs. Others work at our hospital, fast food restaurants, school district, and our one plastic plant factory.
Wharton's biggest and only river, the Colorado is a main attraction in our town. An abundance of people in Wharton are worried about pollution in the river. The pollution consists of trash, mattresses, cans, garbage, and toxic waste from the plastic factory. Many people would like to have a place to fish, but they can't because the water looks nasty. People throw the trash and waste into the river, thinking it will all go away. But it doesn't. Many people depend on the river for recreation and our crops water supply. The pollution isn't only from Wharton, however the river runs all through Texas' capital, Austin and down into our town. People also throw pesticides and household cleaners into the river.
The community believes that we should work together to fix the problem. Many people want to help, but they don't know how. This is a very serious problem. The people in Wharton could probably fix it if they would only try.
We, the people of Wharton have an environmental concern that deals with the pollution of our river. This problem makes the towns people of Wharton objectionable because we feel like we have the right to protect our river. Therefore, we would like your advice. This river reveals a lot of our past history and community. This town, Wharton believes this river should be saved before it is too late. So, please help us save our river. We thank you for your help and concern.
Wharton, Texas, USA Eighth Period Class Grade 8: Ages 13-14
Cynthia Garrett Wharton Junior High Computer Literacy Teacher and Learner 1120 N. Rusk Street Wharton, TX. 77488 czg@tenet.edu
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From: Sandra Eberhardt

Hello Wharton, Texas, We think that we have a solution to your problem. First, you need to make your community aware of the problem. You need to make everyone aware so that they can help out and try to stop it. We would like to suggest the 5 R's. You should do them in the order they are in if possible. They are: REFUSE- don't take what you don't need, REDUCE- if you have to use it try to use less of it, REUSE- if you must use it then try to use and reuse it if you can (make an old tire into a tire swing), REPAIR- if you have something old and broken then try to repair it before you throw it away, RECYCLE- if it is not possible to do any of the other four R's, then recycle. Remember even though recycling saves trees, etc. it still takes energy. Notice how recycling is the last on the list. It is better to refuse, reduce, reuse, repair then to recycle, but remeber that recycling is still a good way to reduce litter. Cole VandenAkker and Michael Maughan
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From: Gene Zalar Organization: Western Michigan University
We have some questions to ask you.
1. Do you have any laws about polluting in the river or anywhere? 2. We think that if your town sued companies that they would have to clean their river. 3. Department of Natural Resources (DNR)'s patrolling rivers to catch polluters. 4. High fines or jail time for polluting 5. Adopt a section of the river (like Michigan's Adopt a high way) 6. Servalance cameras to watch boaters. 7. Litters' will have to pay a high fine.
Hi, from Gobles, Michigan, U.S.A. Our fourth hour class of 8th graders broke up into groups to solve your problem. You said you have a small town of 10,200 residents. Our town has approximately 800 residents! How's that for small?
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From: Students at Varbo Subject: Re: Wharton USA
Hello Wharton! We'll give you some solutions of your problem, the pollution around Colorado. You have maybe already made some of them and some suggestions are very hard to perform. Anyway, you can: 1) Protest by collecting signatures from people who are against the pollution. Then you go around in your town and try to make people sign the paper which says: I'm against the pollution of our river Colorado. You can give the lists with signatures to newspapers and to the people in the townhall!
2) Go to the community and complain and tell them something have to be done. They must at least put up litterboxes and collect peoples garbage at their houses.
3) Show the people in your town that they must stop throwing junk into the river. You can start by not throwing junk by yourself.
4) You can make the plasticfactory aware of the problem and put pressure on them, maybe by avoiding their products. They must not pollute the river, it belongs to everyone!
5) You can have a "themeday" in your school when you learn about environmental problems, with special focus on waterpollution, one whole day.
6) You can talk to your local newspaper and make them write about the problem. That makes a lot of people interrested.
Good luck and contact us if you have questions
Good bye from Simone, Marcus and Camilla.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= From: Students at Varbo Subject: Re: Wharton USA
Hello Wharton!
We write you from Burlov, Sweden with a solution plan:
We have found out that you can sort your garbage and also make a compost of the food you haven't eaten. You can also avoid unnecessary packets in shops. It's possible to burn the refure which is compostible and they can use the heat to warm up houses, but be careful because some garbage can be dangerous to burn and some garbage also pollutes the air with dangerous things. Much garbage can be recycled. Take care of bulbs and batteries at special sites. In Sweden we use a garbage system which is a big garbage bin with different holes for different things like paper, plastic, glass, battery and lamp. A garbage bin is a very good thing because then the garbage don't reach the nature. A compost is also very good because the worms in it break down the food to soil.
Good luck and goodbye from Karin and Camilla in Burlov Sweden
======================================================================== VarboskolanArloev Sweden e-mail: elev@varbo.burlov.se ========================================================================
From: Gene Zalar Organization: Western Michigan University

Wharton Texas Clean-Up

Rally To Rescue River A Reality

The people of Wharton Texas are having a Save The River Rally and Picnic at the Colorado River. The rally and picnic will be at noon on April 20, 1996. Clean up volunteers, a recycling center, and new litter laws will be the topic of the rally.
Bring a dish to pass at the picnic. We will have games. The eighth grade students at Wharton Jr. High School will be running games for the family.
We will talk about setting up recycling centers, new laws for a $50 fine for littering the river and clean up duty for 2 days.
Next Saturday, April 27, a clean-up crew will be cleaning up the river. The save the river volunteers will meet every 2 weeks to keep the river clean.
Karla Fortuna, Natasha Faltersack, Clarissa Kehoe, Sabrina Long, Elizabetha Holmes of Pullman Elementary School, Pullman Michigan USA =================================================================
Gene Zalar P.O. Box 422 South Haven, MI 49090
616-637-8951 zalar@wmich.edu