Conclusions
At the end of the day, littering and its negative impacts on the Lake James environment and potentially people’s health is controllable, but requires people to accept personal responsibility for their actions. It’s not sufficient to claim a lack of awareness regarding the harm litter is causing in our watershed, nor is it OK to rationalize that someone else will clean it up. One way or another there is a significant cost (including taxpayer dollars and potentially future economic prospects) to pay for illegal and careless littering behavior. The residents of Burke and McDowell Counties, their leading government and private institutions, as well as the Lake James Community at large need to immediately come together to better understand the problem and begin to implement real and necessary solutions to stop trash at its source.