Thrifty and Proud of It: Chewing Gum -- Do You? Where? When? What Are the Costs?

Curmudgeon Alert!

I enjoy chewing gum, but I likely chew it in two situations: driving on a long trip and working on a long project. (note to my friend whose husband is in the hospital for a while--I'd be chewing it there, too!) I believe that in general chewing gum does not belong in public. This is particularly applicable in church (how people chew, go to communion, and chew again intrigues me. Is it a new piece? Did they park it in the back of their mouths?) I am fairly outspoken about this, so I was surprised recently when I got a tap on the shoulder at church from a 20-something acquaintance. "Do you have any gum?" he asked. "You are kidding, right? Ha HA" was my reply and I laughed along with what I thought was a joke. He was serious. I felt somewhat remorseful as I must have made him feel uncomfortable since he had no clue as to why I was laughing.

I realize I am in the minority, and every etiquette reference I checked had much looser standards than mine, but there is no doubt that gum chewing contributes to the ugliness of our environment, as described by Brian Downing in Engineering Suite 101:

"Every day, millions of Americans walk on sidewalks littered with little, round black spots, perhaps thinking these blobs are merely dirt or tar. But these dots are not tar, but instead discarded chewing gum, blackened by grime and flattened by the thousands of pedestrians who continually trample it.

The removal and cleaning of this concrete blight is a never-ending, and expensive, endeavor for cities and private business owners. Finding affordable and effective ways to clean gum from sidewalks is important for those already pinched by a tight budget.

This is at best an eyesore, and at worst the most vile and prodigious illustration of American laziness and littering since that car tossed a bag of cigarette butts and old hash brown wrappers at the feet of the 'Crying Indian' in the famous PSA from the Seventies.

This issue has led to a conundrum on American sidewalks. Americans do not like to be told what to do, and, despite laws to the contrary, they won't throw their gum in a garbage can. But they do not want to pay for the gum cleanup, either. It's a lose/lose scenario.

Coast Guardsman Adrien O'Brien succinctly captured this Catch-22 in the August 2, 2008 edition of the Virginia-Pilot. When asked to comment about gum-cleaning services he said, 'What a waste of taxpayer money. How are you going to police people from spitting it out again?'"

I asked an acquaintance with the City of Knoxville Public Service about gum clean-ups. While CoK has a machine to remove the gum spots, there is no routine service mainly because of the expense. There are some efforts, mainly on the West Coast, to recycle gum; but it's not yet economically feasible.

Here's the latest coupon round-up: