Litter and large-scale refuse dumping is a continuing–perhaps even worsening–problem in the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, N.Y., as this week’s article in the local Star reports. As more McMansion residents accumulate more furnishings, go through more food wrappings in their industrial-scale kitchens and collect more yard waste from their lavish grounds, the potential offload increases. That’s compounds a landfill problem on all of Long Island, raising costs and probably leading corner-cutters of all income strata to toss their debris wherever they think they can hide it. Often that’s in one of the nature preserves, though usually not where there are active trails and hikers to keep watch and clean up. That’s a good reason to expand the trail network as much as possible–a generally accepted notion these days, even if it was decidedly not when the Hamptons hiking enthusiasts got going in the 1980s. “Tragedies of the commons” are fewer when there’s stewardship, and civic groups can provide that when given the responsibility. Of course, they can’t well perform law enforcement, but from the comments in the Star piece, neither in the case of abandoned trash can the towns.
https://www.easthamptonstar.com/villages/202414/talking-trash-dumping-hotspots
Tim W. Ferguson 