LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Proposals for ‘Step 3’ in fighting hay-wrap litter scourge on area roadways

Proposals for ‘Step 3’ in fighting hay-wrap litter scourge on area roadways

Re: Janet Taber’s letter to the editor that suggested a “Step 2” in battling the scourge of plastic-netting hay wrap littering the roadsides (“Step 2 for net-wrap scourge: Pick up what’s already there,” Times, Feb. 28). Here are some suggestions for Step 3:
• Maybe an FFA group would take it on as a project to clean up the plastic netting from highways or look into ways to recycle the stuff. One of my grandsons in Joplin is majoring in agriculture, and I asked him to check with his ag teacher to see if they could come up with a project to recycle it somehow.
• Someone – MoDOT, the sale barn, the county commissioners, the businesses that sell hay wrap – could set up a designated place where the hay wrap could be left for proper disposal.
• Another step might be getting the companies that make the plastic-netting hay wrap to develop some kind of material that is biodegradable.
This stuff is a real problem. We drive from Protem to Ava once a week, and last week between the turnoff from Highway 95 onto Highway 5 up to Lakey’s Hay and Feed south of Ava, I counted 54 wads of hay wrap! And that was just the ones I could see. There are places where the bank drops down from the road, and you can’t see what’s there.  

Joanne Adel
Protem

Editor’s note: This letter was adapted from a phone call from the reader, who also asked us to remind readers that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says it’s illegal to burn the plastic-netting hay wrap and the only acceptable way to dispose of it is to get it into landfills.
 

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423