A study on litter from Wichita State’s Environment Finance Center suggests there is room for improvement. The study was put together after people in the community voiced concern about the number of plastic bags seen floating around. People involved in this study looked at 12 city parks across Wichita, which came out to two parks per city council district. Study leaders say their findings were close to what was expected. “Wichita is a unique place, but our litter certainly is not unique,” said Michelle DeHaven, program manager at the EFC. “When we compare it to other litter studies, our study showed that Wichita’s litter is similar to what communities are experiencing across the country.” Of all the trash collected during pickup events, 47% was single-use plastics. “The majority of the plastic that we found was food and beverage containers — water bottles, Gatorade-type drinks, soda bottles, alcohol bottles, chip bags and wrappers that come off convenience foods at gas stations,” DeHaven said. “A second runner up was cigarette butts. We found cigarette butts all over the place.”
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI
