Over spring break, a few friends and I took a drive down to Kentucky to rock climb in the Red River Gorge. It is a beautiful state, the people there are very friendly and helpful, but I noticed something very different from up north in the way they deal with their trash. Places like Geneva NY, Bozeman MT, most of California, and many other places throughout the country are up to date on garbage and recycling practices, and in some cases pretty advanced. Biodegradable bags, 100% recycled and re-recyclable bottles, and returnable and re-usable food wrappers are on the cutting edge of environmentally friendly waste practices, and are fairly prevalent in our stores. On the other end of the spectrum, and certainly not at the opposite extreme, some states and areas are still struggling to breach the hurdle of preventing people from littering, let alone getting them to recycle. In Kentucky, it appeared as though people still littered quite readily. There was garbage on the sides of trails, beside and in roads, on hills, and even right next to garbage receptacles. There are efforts being made to reduce littering, mainly with signs warning of a $500 fine for littering, but they clearly are not 100% effective. This made it clear that while the initiatives that companies like Naked and Odwalla are taking are very good and productive, there is still a lot of educating and reform that needs to happen to bring some parts of the country up to the standard of modern waste practices.