Green Junction - The High Cost of Litter: Reducing Waste and Protecting Our Communities
Garbage along highways can pose dangers to drivers. The Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) spent nearly $10 million of its budget to clear garbage from the roads in 2024. The state’s website includes strong statements about the unfortunate use of state funds for trash removal. “ALDOT’s mission is to maintain and improve roads, not trash collection. ALDOT also contracts with companies to remove trash from interstates and state roads and coordinates with volunteers from the Adopt-A-Mile program. Despite these efforts, cleanup costs continue to rise.” The ALDOT website lists the way the money is intended for use, such as the improvement of road intersections, road resurfacing and the implementation of sidewalks, crosswalks and guardrails.
According to a study by Duke University and project partners, “In 2023, North Carolinians spent $56.3M cleaning up 14.6M pounds of litter.” The study categorized the type of litter removed and found the “the majority of litter is made of plastic, including about 60% of roadway litter and 80-90% of litter in water sources.” Not surprisingly, numerous plastic beverage bottles were part of the litter count, in addition to plastic food take-out containers, plastic bags and plastic utensils.
The best and obvious solution to the problem is to reduce single use items, particularly plastics. A recommendation in the Duke University report is a state bottle deposit program. There are currently ten states that have bottle bills, where drink purchases require deposits of 5 to 15 cents per container. Studies show that bottle returns and recycling are significantly higher where these programs exist.
The importance of reducing single use materials (including plastic cups from coffee shops!) and cheap, short-lived products cannot be overstated. In the meantime, consider taking part in community cleanups. The Alliance for the Great Lakes organizes an annual fall beach cleanup and it is scheduled for September 19th this year (https://adopt.greatlakes.org/s/). The Plastic Reduction Alliance also organizes cleanups and is looking for volunteers for their September 27th road and park cleanups (https://www.plasticreductionalliance.org/events#upcoming-events). Details can be found on the websites. When possible, choose buckets or other reusable containers for cleanups since plastic bags add to the load of plastic garbage.