What would happen if our city, county and state got serious about litter?

Littering is a crime.

Unfortunately, it’s a crime that often isn’t easy to solve — unless the criminals are caught red-handed.

Imagine how much nicer our community would be if you never saw a scrap of paper, a cigarette butt or a pile of construction debris littering the roadside.

Natchez Alderman Ricky Gray can envision such a world, and he thinks if we all got serious about reporting litterbugs, the community might actually experience a renewed sense of cleanliness and order.

For Gray, seeing illegal dump sites in the city get cleaned up one month only to have them become reused again the following month is ridiculous.

Our area is beautiful, geographically and even architecturally. Some of the nation’s finest antebellum mansions are here.

But the area also has far too many mistreated empty lots and gullies that become makeshift dumpsites for lawbreakers.

We can almost guarantee that if our laws were changed to inflict serious penalties on litterers, the practice might end.

But until such harsh laws — and the rigorous application of those laws — exist, our only option is for citizens to take ownership in the matter and report litterbugs.

It’s our community they’re messing up, and the solution lies with us.