Bottle Bill Resource Guide

After a third consecutive year of trash collection along Foxcroft Road, there is remarkable consistency in the absolute numbers and percentages. To aid those first-time readers and as a reminder to past readers of this column, the course of trash collection is a 4.6 mile route of dirt and hard road that includes portions of the Polecat Hill Rd. (Rt. 696), the Foxcroft Rd. (Rt. 626), the Snake Hill Rd. (Rt. 744), and the Millville Rd. (Rt. 743). The numbers will be stated with respect to 2002 and 2003 as well; so that the reader may appreciate those products that are gaining market share (“winners”) vs. those that are assuming a more modest profile (“losers”).

Summary of Repetitive Trash: (% of total repetitive trash)

Tobacco:

Fast Food:

New Age / Soft Drinks:

Water:

Beer / Wine / Booze:

The tobacco category has been slipping in terms of absolute numbers and percentages. Marlboro still leads the pack, but all categories were down, especially Red Man, down from 8 to 1. Perhaps our Red Man addict has moved on to a less Blue part of the great commonwealth.

Fast Food, on the other hand, has increased its share of total trash from 11 to 12%. McDonald’s, one of America’s favorite dining spots, has aggressively increased production from 31 to 64 pieces thereby handily defeating 7-Eleven (35) by a landslide. Big time popularity should be a good selling point for any prospective McDonald’s franchise in Middleburg.

Beverage containers, cans, glass and PET bottles, account for 64% of the total of repetitive trash. Coca-Cola / Sprite (87) was barely able to nip out Pepsi / Mountain Dew (83) for the soft drink title. New Age and Soft drinks accounted for 25% of all trash.
In the Beer / Wine / Booze category, Anheuser- Busch is the consistent big winner. Despite having slightly decreased numbers in 2004, Anheuser-Busch still accounts for 24% of all repetitive trash on this and your road too. The slightly weakening numbers may account for the reluctance of Anheuser-Busch to sponsor the 2005 Super Bowl. Perhaps they no longer wish to be associated with such a hedonistic gladiatorial contest. Note that a real loser, Coor’s, boasting a meager 2% of trash production, has sought to trumpet its underperforming product by becoming the official 2005 Super Bowl beer. Good luck! It takes real advertising pizzaz to separate all these trash beers.

From the numbers, we note that Coca-Cola, which produces about 40% of all bottled beverages worldwide, was only able to get one third as much of its product on the road as Anheuser-Busch. Does this say something about the consumers of soft drinks as opposed to beer? Consider this, in 2003 not one American was killed by terrorists in the continental U.S., yet 45,000 Americans were killed in auto accidents. How many of those “accidents” involved alcoholic beverages? I do not know but should we broaden the definition of terrorist to include drunken driving or littering for that matter? Probably not, but those activities are not exactly an affirmation of our Republic. As long as we are spending $ 280 million per day in Iraq, why don’t we take a page from our enemy, Osama Bin Forgotten’s book, and try alcohol prohibition. Oops, that’s already been tried right here in Loudoun County. Well maybe we could reinstate the draft, then all unemployed youths could go move halfway across the world where they would not be tempted to drink, drive, and throw their beer cans on Foxcroft road.

On a more practical note: the driver of a red-maroon Mercedes motor car that had a scrape with an oak tree on Pole Cat Hill Road on New Year’s Eve (probably swerved to avoid a pole ca , right?) may pick up his or her hub cap at Mr. Ryan’s.