No, it’s not a national holiday or even a state-wide holiday. Instead, with the anticipation of spring, the Iredell County Solid Waste Department plans to hand out tarps to residents with proper solid waste decals displayed on vehicles. The arrival of spring on March 20 means that many will be spring cleaning and throwing out waste, which is often driven to a landfill. To prevent trash from flying out of the cars, residents are recommended to use these tarps to keep trash in their vehicles, until they reach the landfill. The rest of the article can be read here in the online version of the Mooresville Tribune.
In 2008, North Carolina Department of Transportation picked up 384,540 pounds of waste from highways just in Iredell County and the free tarps are expected to reduce this amount of litter. If the tarp is applied properly, it should be able to prevent trash from flying out of a car or pickup truck.
Applying a tarp to the back of a car or pickup truck is much like applying a truck tarp but to a smaller vehicle and works in the same type of principle. When a tarp is applied to a truck, it is secured along the back, either manually by workers or automatically by the truck, and shouldn’t be too loose or too tight. A tarp that is too loose can experience wind whip and tear and, in some cases, actually let loose the materials being carried. On the other hand, when a tarp is too tight, it can tear or become strained, thus reducing its lifespan, in transit.
As with the article from Arkansas posted previously about proposed legislation requiring all trucks transporting materials, this recent article is a step in the right direction in the use of tarps to protect the environment from litter and motorists from trash potentially hitting and damaging a car window and passengers.
