Sign, sign, everwhere a sign

Wondering what to do with all of those campaign signs now that the elections are over? Recycle! Do your part to protect the environment and keep campaign signs out of the landfill.

Around the nation, local jurisdictions like the one in Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida, have instituted programs and regulations to curb - so to speak - the proliferation of unwanted signs, particularly those unwelcome "political" signs that crop up every election season.

Paula Dockery, a state senator from central Florida crafted the 2005 pilot program for Florida. The program establishes a process, free to the public, which lets citizens and or volunteer workers for political candidates to take signs collected from front yards or public spaces to drop-off collection centers after the election is over.

The unwanted signs are then donated to clubs or schools that can use them for student projects or they are sent to businesses to be recycled.

It seems ironic that the very officials we depend on to craft our laws and provide for the common good are the same people who generate so much sign litter each election period. Would it not be nice if the politicians, winners and losers alike, would adhere to their own ordinances and quickly apply "term limits" to political signs - come to think about it, that might not be a bad idea for the politicians as well!

by Harlan Weikle
Greener Magazine

Keywords:: ELECTION, LITTER, SIGNS, CAMPAIGN, RECYCLE