Did a pandemic year mean more or less litter?

On the one hand, curbside collection for take-out, extra packing for health and safety, and compulsion to drink away pandemic sorrow could have meant the gullies along Spear Street would have been overflowing with plastic, paper and beer cans. On the other hand, many of us were able to stay at home, barely ventured from our homes, and when we did indulge in lots of takeout, we care about our roadsides so would dispose or recycle containers responsibly.

So the amount of litter seemed to be from out-of-town people driving through Charlotte. The verdict— all in all, we didn’t see much difference along our roadside from last year, judging from the number of bags we filled. In the section of Spear Street from Mount Philo Road to Guinea Road, we collected 12 bags among the four of us—mostly cans and bottles, the drink of choice being Twisted Tea, and then one four-foot length of twisted metal.