As the solid waste stream increases and as the disposal problem mounts with increasing regulation upon landfills, we may be forced to reconsider our sentimental attitudes toward roadsides. These cleanups consist of volunteer groups, particularly in the spring around Earth Day, collecting bag after bag of trash that is deposited on the roadside for the county trucks to collect and transport to the landfill. At the same time, since the American auto industry makes it easier for its people to smoke cigarettes and dispose of them than to consume a beverage and dispose of the container, our roadsides continue to accumulate tons of debris, most of it in the form of beverage containers and food packaging materials. We should perhaps consider another kind of calculation.
Bottles have better aerodynamic qualities and travel further.
Aerodynamically unstable packaging materials have a very short toss distance. Any road edge trash can be graded with lighter materials nearest the edge, cans a few feet further away, and bottles and other heavier items defining the distal margin of tossed trash. Distances, of course, are affected by slope, vegetation, vehicle speed, and other factors. A working average maximum toss distance might be considered to be 9 or 10 feet from the road edge. For convenience of calculation, let us assume the average to be 9 feet.