Wild Cat Blood

 Yesterday I had a pretty good trash haul.  The beach areas were kind of filthy.  Was there a party?  I didn't get an invitation.  I picked up quite a bit of fishing stuff.  There seems to be a number of folks who fish along the banks but fail to pick up their stuff when they leave.  I noticed this same behavior when I was out in Colorado.  Over the many weeks I've picked up empty bait buckets, cans of corn, tackle, and broken fishing poles.  It took me 15 minutes to get a fish hook out of my glove and also remove fishing line that was all tangled up in some branches.  I would think that folks who want to use the natural environment for a sport that they love would also want to protect that environment.

 That red plastic cup on the top of my trash bag is one of those #6 plastic cups.  Most of us have probably bought those or used them at a keg party or two over the years.  Minneapolis now bans them in restaurants along with styrofoam takeout containers.  Is the city doing this to protect us from this type of plastic or the fact that it doesn't recycle well?  I don't know. I probably have only picked up three of those red cups (usually Solo brand) in the 3 months since I have been doing this.  When I walk to Target in downtown Minneapolis I see that I can still purchase these if I care to do so along with styrofoam coffee cups.  I wonder if the next step for Minneapolis is to ban these products not just from restaurants but also in retail stores.