Here in the Panhandle, we are no strangers to extreme wind - so why is the City of Amarillo unable to put lids on their outdoor park trashcans? With nothing to keep the trash from escaping, plastic waste is rapidly polluting our parks and waterways. Sitting atop the Ogallala Aquifer, our position upon this crutial water table puts the responsibility of protecting and maintaing the playas of the Great Plains upon ourselves, and without enough care we may end up permanently poisoning this beautiful land.

The impact of the currently lidless-trashcans is most obvious at John Ward, previously known as Medipark or Medical Center Park, as well as in Southeast Park and Thompson Memorial Park, where trash can be readily observed to fly from the open trashbins and directly into the water. This waste is regularly confused as food to wildlife, destroying the value that is spent in stocking the water with fish, as well as directly poisoning both fauna and humans alike who then indirectly consume the waste.

The City of Amarillo must design and install coverings for the various park trashcans currently without lids within their possession, as they are a major source of pollutants across the city, and actively make the efforts of both those who try to protect the enviornment, as well as our workers in waste management, in vain. We must act quickly before the damage that has already been done becomes irreversible. The longer this problem is allowed to exist, the more microplastics that are allowed to be directly broken down into the enviornment, doing immediate damage to people living today, as well as to the surrounding enviornment that will last for thousands of years. It is our responsibility to provide a safe future for our children, the Earth itself, and everything living thing on it, by doing our part in keeping the waste we produce from entering into not only from the parks, but from every body of water in the Panhandle. Please consider this simple request and the difference that could be immediately made if this one thing were to change.