Urine trouble

Throwing waste out the window could result in a big pile of fines.

Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining, and don’t throw your portable toilet on the side of the highway, either.

That’s the message of the Washington Department of Ecology and many other states that have increased fines and penalties after discovering literally thousands of pee bottles along the interstate. Often called “trucker bombs,” these milk jugs, bags and liter bottles full of urine are causing stomachs to turn.

While some truckers admit to using a jug for bathroom breaks on the road, many drivers find the idea of flying urine revolting.

“They are downright nasty. I’ve seen ’em lying around,” says driver Rick Jones for High Road Transit out of Dallas.

Joshua Knight, a driver for PAM Transport, says he doesn’t use a jug when he has to go.
“I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Knight says. “I don’t understand how anyone can go to the bathroom in their truck, but my trainer used to use Coke bottles.”

Megan Warfield, litter coordinator from the Washington Department of Ecology doesn’t understand, either. In a recent interview with Samantha Bee from The Daily Show, Warfield expressed her disgust with the habit.

“In a year our litter patrol probably finds about 25,000 bottles of urine,” she says. “You can see them on the side of the road amongst the rocks, just glistening in the sun.”

While the urine keeps “glistening,” state litter patrols are fed up. Besides picking up and disposing of the bags, bottles and jugs, clean-up crews often run over pee bombs with their lawnmowers, resulting in a yellow shower.

But what’s so wrong with a little pee? Along with Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison of the Doors and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, people throughout history have relied on “urine therapy” to cure illness and maintain health. In fact, therapeutic urine use dates all the way back to the Holy Roman Empire when Roman architects built urine troughs in the public squares for citizens to use as a urinal

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