I love the beauty of Martha’s Vineyard: the lush, changing landscape, rolling hills, splashing waves and ocean vistas, coexisting wildlife, strolls along our shops and eateries, cultural mix of people coming together to form our Island community, the small town feel, home to all of us who live here. The shared natural beauty is stunning. Except when it is not.

There are a number of us cleaning up after others. Like a messy home that needs tending, we notice the garbage strewn along roads and shorelines, in the water and woods, on the paths and even peppering sidewalks through our towns. We clean it and the litter is right back the next day. I am sure you know that aside from looking ugly, the litter is detrimental to the health of our land and sea and all the people who live here.

In Massachusetts, littering is a crime. The commonwealth defines litter as garbage, paper, refuse, bottles, cans, rubbish or trash of any kind or nature. (This includes nip bottles, cigarette butts, released helium balloons.)

There appear to be three significant sources of litter when it comes to road, beach, path and sidewalk trash: people blatantly littering, uncovered trucks, and recycling/rubbish trucks that are less than efficient in their removal efforts.

To those who blatantly litter, we see your cans, bottles, takeout food and beverage containers, plastic bags, dirty diapers, wet-wipes, cigarette material, balloons and plastic straws. Perhaps, when driving, fishing, boating or hiking you need to carry a small garbage bag around in your vehicle so that you can put all your trash into it and then dispose of it properly. Balloons too, when let go, become litter. They cause distress and even death to marine mammals, cetaceans, birds and other wildlife that mistake them for food.

The state has fines for littering. You can be charged with a civil or criminal offense. If a motor vehicle is used in committing the offense, your driver’s license or permit to operate motor vehicles can be suspended for up to 30 days.

To those driving uncovered trucks hauling recycling, rubbish or other material, your bags, wraps, jugs, bottles, polystyrene (Styrofoam), and paper trash is flying out and about. Whether you operate a commercial or private vehicle the rules are the same. Your haul needs to be fully covered. If you are driving a vehicle that is not adequately covered, you can get a ticket, whether or not anything flies out of it. Most of the flyaway trash we find is on dump days.

To the recycling and rubbish trucks that are less than efficient in their removal efforts, too much of the plastic and paper from your pickup seems to miss its mark, flying roadside instead of into your trucks. I encourage you to look in your wake when you pick up people’s recycling/garbage. It is your responsibility to properly get their items completely into your trucks. Otherwise the blowing trash pollutes our neighborhoods.

I call upon the Island selectmen, our conservation and environmental groups, the boards of health, harbor masters and assistant harbor masters, police departments, chamber of commerce, recycling/rubbish hauling companies, business owners, residents, anyone with a phone camera that will record license plates or offenses — it is time for action. Our shared home is being polluted before our very eyes. What will we do? A few ideas:

• Post littering fine signs at town lines, beaches, boating docks and nature trails that say Keep Our Island Beautiful.

• Hold seasonal (four times a year) community-wide cleanups involving students, clubs, open-bed truck owners, businesses, recycling/rubbish companies, new and longtime residents, allowing for early education and community connection, effort and action. Sort of like jury service, make it a rotating schedule so that every Islander works the cleanup at least once a year.

• Better enforce the laws pertaining to litter fines and covered material in truck beds.

• Figure out how we can have greater community support of our police departments and harbor masters in their efforts to bring polluters to justice.

• Require biodegradable eco-friendly food and beverage to-go containers and paper straws only on the Island.

• Adopt a single-use plastic bag and balloon ban, like our Nantucket neighbors.

• Create better recycling programs.

• Install smoker’s station receptacles in all the towns.

• Perform more frequent trash bin collections in public areas, boat docks, and at beaches.

• Put basketball hoop-style trash bins on the spot or cameras in the trees above the communal nip bottle dumping grounds that are just a short drive from the liquor stores.

• Arm our dump attendants and lifeguards with cameras to easily forward pictures to the police departments and harbor masters.

I want to help bring about a litter-free Martha’s Vineyard. We need to move beyond the constant cleanup efforts that so many people do. I have been asking around and brainstorming about the types and sources of pollution and options for solutions. If you would like to join me, even in the smallest of ways, I’m in the book. And if you’re thinking, “Great, she’s got this,” you are wrong. I will not go this alone. Nor should I have to. We all need to step in and help the Vineyard return to its natural beauty.

Constance Messmer lives in Chilmark.