TYLER, Texas — Single-use plastics are one of the greatest threats to the environment.
Since the pandemic began, cities across the U.S. and in East Texas have seen an increase in trash being discarded improperly.
PPE gear, like masks and gloves, while keeping people safe have become a common piece of trash left at places like parks, parking lots and even rivers and creeks.
Kim Casey, the executive director of Keep Longview Beautiful, said the latter has been a big issue for Longview.
"PPE that we have, when we find those things on the ground, ultimately, that can find its way into the Sabine River, which is our drinking source," she explained.
In hopes of raising awareness for this issue, Keep Longview Beautiful provided the city with money in hopes of receiving a grant to provide information to water customers.
"We were blessed to be able to help the City of Longview with a Community Improvement Grant to help clean up the Sabine watershed because of all the extra littering and illegal dumping that's occurring," said Casey. "What's happening is they received our grant and so they're waiting for a larger portion of the grant. We're just waiting to hear if we'll get that larger grant to be able to do all of the new publications."
Casey feels the increase of litter could also be due to the fact, that the nonprofit hasn't wanted to promote its adopt a street program due to COVID-19. However, community groups have started to host their own pick up days to clean up litter in the city.
Over in the City of Tyler, Leanne Robinette the senior manager of Parks and Recreation feels the community has done a good job at taking care of the parks. It's drivers that have become an issue.
"A lot of litter that we see, I feel like comes from our medians," Robinette explained. "We have 120 medians in the city of Tyler and, you know, that often times is where we pick up."
Both Tyler and Longview have contracts with organizations to help keep their trash out of the community. But there is more that people can do, such as be mindful of what's in a vehicle that could possibly get out and leaving a space the way it's found.