'Poop Train' In Alabama: Febreze Gives Out Free Products To Residents Of Small Town

A small town in Alabama recently lifted a months-long curse from a nearby "poop train," but the effects lingered. One of the biggest names in household odor killers saw a golden marketing opportunity there and seized it, delivering free carloads of Febreze last week to the embattled residents of Parrish, Alabama.

Situated in northwest Alabama, Parrish’s population is just under 1,000. For more than two months, a train hauling more than 200 cargo containers full of human waste from New York and New Jersey sat idly in the town’s train yard, stinking up the place. The citizens of Parrish went as far as to compare the smell to that of dead bodies, according to AL.com.

Finally, on April 17, the final container was taken away to a landfill 20 miles away.

Febreze, known for its sprayable odor-eliminating products, swooped in and gave out free samples of its product to the people of Parrish. The company then turned it into a short film, released last week.

In what is essentially a two-minute ad for Febreze, residents of Parrish are interviewed about their plight. The company joked that it could not simply drop Febreze onto the trains, as the residents initially wished, but giving out bottles of the pleasant-smelling spray might be some consolation to people who had to tolerate the smell of New York City’s collective waste for two months.

To make matters worse, the poop train sat near Parrish’s little league baseball fields, meaning residents considered rescheduling or moving games and other events in the area because the smell was so foul. One woman took to putting peppermint oil under her nose because she odor was so powerful, according to the Associated Press.

The townspeople of Parrish took offense to the idea that a major metropolitan area like New York City would send its waste down to a small town in the south like that. Other towns in Alabama complained and sued because of the poop train operation, which began in the area in early 2017, according to AL.com.

The deal to ship the waste to the Big Sky landfill was originally inked with the idea of bolstering plant growth in the landfill.