This post reflects my own journey working with the state DOT for 25 years, picking up roadside litter. I don’t do it very often, but in my case, it’s a tough job for several reasons. When we started, it was me, my wife, and my young son. Now it is just me. We picked a section of roadway, a state route, that was a magnet for trash. It is also difficult due to the blind turns and roadside topography. In some places, a steep hillside comes just about to the edge of the road. In others, there is a steep drop-off starting near the edge of the road. Thus, it can be dangerous. When my young son was along, we had to be very careful. He stayed with my wife away from the dangerous areas.
According to Wikipedia:
“The program originated in the 1980s when James Evans,
an engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), saw debris
flying out of a pickup truck bed. Litter cleanup by the city was expensive, so
Evans sought the help of local groups to sponsor the cleaning of sections of
the highway. The efforts of Billy Black, a TxDOT public information officer,
led to quarterly cleanup cycles, volunteer safety training, the issuing of
reflective vests and equipment, and the posting of adopt-a-highway signs.”
Indeed, the common practice among pick-up truck owners of
tossing their trash in the truck bed, only for it to blow out onto the ground,
can be infuriating.
“Some states, such as Nevada, allow both Adopt-a-Highway
and Sponsor-a-Highway programs. In both programs, an organization that
contributes to the cleanup is allowed to post its name. However, while an
adopting organization provides the volunteers who do the litter pickup, a
sponsoring organization instead pays professional contractors to do the work.
Because of safety concerns, the latter is more typical in highways with high
traffic volumes.”
When a group is approved for
litter pick-up, they are given a sign to indicate their community service. That
is free advertising. There is also some history with marginalized groups being
supported or denied as Adopt-a-Highway groups. In 2001, a gay and lesbian group
was denied participation in South Dakota. Later, they were allowed but could
not have their name and orientation on the signs. A local strip club is allowed
on signage near Pittsburgh, PA. In 2005 the American Nazi Party was allowed to
have signs put up in Oregon, but vandalism of the signs led to them being taken
down. Now, the party has no affiliation with Adopt-a-Highway. In 2012, the KKK
in Georgia tried to get signs but were denied due to safety concerns and the
group’s history of hate.
Working for Adopt-a-Highway in my state,
Ohio, requires occasional meetings to watch videos about issues that come up,
have some discussion, and to convey rules and protocol. We were told about some
dangers including discarded waste from illegal meth labs. We are issued vests,
and when it’s time to pick up, we go and get, or they drop off, signs and trash
bags. I use metal grabbers that I have to pay for. After picking up, we fill
out a sheet with info on our pick-up: number of bags, any issues that need
consideration, and the strangest items found. I have found gross stuff like
dirty diapers. Once I picked up a small plastic bag and noticed it was moving.
There was a snake inside that was able to slither out.
There are also many
annoyances with picking up litter. Sometimes people don’t slow down when they
should. Often, they don’t get over when they pass. Sometimes they can’t because
of a blind turn ahead. I tend to get mad because my section of the road is
always trash-heavy. The load has not declined over the 25 years I have been
doing it. Littering is alive and well. I often consider that a certain
percentage of the passing vehicles have people in them who have thrown the trash
out. I never throw trash out, so I know it is very easy to not be a litterbug.
I wonder after 25 years if there is a new generation of litterbugs. I admit, I
get frustrated by the amount of trash, and I consider how many individual events
of tossing occur in the intervening months between pick-ups. It is in the
thousands, probably tens of thousands, over the two-mile stretch that I clean
up. It reminds me that people are a-holes. There are other annoyances for me.
There are not very many places to park along the way, so sometimes you have to
carry what becomes a heavy bag for long distances. Sometimes the wind blows the
large bags around. Sometimes broken glass or cans shredded by mowing rip the
bottom of the bag, and you have to double-bag them after noticing that trash
was falling out. I collect all the bags and put them in one place so the DOT
can easily collect them. Last time I did this, I noticed a leak had dripped
muck into my back seat. Probably stinky muck. I have to squat over ditches,
empty out cans and bottles filled with water and muck. I have to reach and work
on steep slopes close to the road. One thing that particularly annoys me is
when people throw out bottles that are full or mostly full and capped. It is
hard or impossible to pick them up with the grabber, and they make your bag
heavy. One person (I assume) in particular would buy 40-ounce bottles of beer
and drink a very small amount of them, and throw them out. They were heavy.
What the hell? Another issue that happens on my route is ticks. I always end up
with ticks after pickup. This last time I picked seven ticks off of me: five
deer ticks, one lone-star tick, and one baby tick. The average is about four or
five. I was going to say that it is a thankless task, but there are people who
stop and say thank you, which I appreciate, as it subdues my anger a bit. I
work at a fast pace, sometimes very fast, trying to get it done so the DOT can
get the bags before they spend the night outside, where raccoons can tear them
up. The local DOTs work early hours, I believe 7AM to 3:30 PM. My last pick up
was seven hours of fast-paced work with one ten-minute break. I pick up both
sides of the road separately due to the dangers on a little more than 2 miles.
I estimate that I walk close to five miles in a normal pickup. I was sore after
that last one. It’s a good workout. I’ll be turning 60 this year, so I won’t be
able to do it forever, but I don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. One can even
discern the state of the economy by the brands of beer thrown out.
References:
Adopt-a-Highway.
Wikipedia. Adopt-a-Highway
- Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment