Thursday, August 21, 2008

Burning Trash in the Back Yard

I have some neighbors who burn trash incessantly in their back yard which is of course a mere driveway's width from my back yard. This is a habit passed down from generation to generation of low class people. I don't mean socioeconomically, I mean they simply have no class.

I admit, I was raised with this same habit. Growing up poor and what not, I guess I honestly never knew better, but I do now, and older people do as well. My father abhorred the smell of burnt plastic and thus only burned "the pile" once every year or so. It turns out by some wonderful coincidence that my father now has trash service and thus no longer has need to burn trash, and I have had trash service for a while and so the same. That was a bit different because we have to put up with nasty smoke up to several times a week.

But back to my neighbor. What am I supposed to do about this problem. These are old school Arkansas people, if they know I am unhappy and then receive a citation from the DEQ, well, let's say I fear reprisals. The biggest thing though is that open burning of trash is illegal. Conducting a salvage operation by burning (which in essence they also do) is also illegal. Even if they do get a citation, they have 20 days to fix it before they actually get fined.

So, the hard questions. Am I being a good neighbor by doing this? If I knew my neighbor was guilty of murder, I would report them. This crime is less heinous for sure, but only because the killing process takes a bit longer. I don't want by little boy to suffer permanent or future sickness or death because someone is too cheap to pay for trash service.

WiredForStereo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

my parents used to burn their trash... in fact i used to play with it while it burned.

does that make me a redneck?

-wilson

Solomon Parker said...

Not now, necessarily.

You might start getting checked out younger than they recommend though. You know, check yourself in the shower and such. Testicular cancer is a drag.