Bellingham — Complaints are at an all-time high as streets, highways and other areas are littered with trash, according to the Washington State Department of Ecology.
Steven Williams, a solid waste manager with the state’s Department of Ecology, says litter complaints this winter have been plentiful.
“We don’t know if people are littering more, but in both 2020 and 2021, there have been far fewer resources removing litter from state roads because of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
According to Williams, across Washington state litter pickup programs have been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, programs such as Ecology’s summer teen litter cleanup programs, state and county correctional crews and WSDOT’s commercial and volunteer adopt-a-highway programs were suspended for periods of both years, along with other programs.
“This has a cumulative impact of a lot more litter on state roads currently,” Williams said.
Thankfully, these programs are scheduled to come back and help keep Washington clean once again.
Williams says that twelve Ecology adult cleanup crews will be starting back up in March, each with 3 to 4 crew members per crew.
Ecology’s other programs are also scheduled to return in 2022.
These litter cleanup crews are only part of Ecology’s ongoing efforts against litter, as they launched two new litter prevention campaigns last spring, and Williams says another prevention campaign is planned to launch in 2022.
Ecology’s We Keep WA Litter Free Campaign encourages citizens to stop littering at the source by practicing easy habits such as keeping a bag for garbage in your car, securing all items in or on your car, encouraging others not to litter and more. According to the campaign’s website, littering can lead to expensive clean-ups, dangerous road conditions and environmental impacts.
“Every year, Washington’s state and local governments spend millions of dollars to clean up litter, but those efforts only remove a fraction of the 18 million pounds of waste that accumulate every year on our roads, in our communities and throughout our natural habitats.”
Ecology’s Secure Your Load for Safer Roads Campaign also encourages citizens not to litter by providing a source of information of how to correctly secure items on top of cars, in trucks, or trailers in order to not lose anything on the road. Unsecured items cause over 300 car crashes every year and up to 40% of roadside litter in Washington, the website states.
How to help
Along with volunteering to help clean up litter, Washington State Department of Transportation has its Adopt-A-Highway Program that will presume on May 1 and allow citizens to help in the roadside clean-up effort. Many Washington counties also have their own “Adopt-A-Road” type of program in your local community.
