VDOT Needs Help Controling Roadside Litter

RICHMOND — The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has crews out on the roads picking up litter, and it needs the public’s help.

While mowing the grass along the roadways from now through November, VDOT crews are picking up litter — fast food wrappers, plastic bottles, car tires, sofas and more. It’s a dirty job, and VDOT does it several times a year to provide safe and inviting roadways. Keeping the roads clean is not just VDOT’s job — it’s everyone’s responsibility.

From Oct. 25 to Nov. 2, VDOT’s Adopt-a-Highway volunteers are joining the effort to clean up the roads. The agency is also encouraging people who aren’t already volunteers to sign up to adopt a road to keep tidy.

That receipt that flew out of the car window or that cigarette butt someone flicked out on the road may not seem like a big deal, but it adds up. And it’s costing VDOT $10 million a year to clean up. Rather than spend that money on picking up trash, VDOT could fix 81,660 potholes, or pave 80 lane miles of roadway, or paint 21,200 miles of lane markings, or complete a road improvement project.

VDOT collected more than 360,000 bags of trash from its nearly 60,000 miles of state-maintained roadways last year — enough trash to fill over 15 Olympic-size swimming pools. However, even that amount represents just a fraction of the total litter problem in Virginia.

“People enjoy views of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and meandering rivers while driving through Virginia, but the litter is an eyesore that not only detracts from the beauty but draws taxpayer money away from other transportation needs,” said VDOT Commissioner Stephen Brich. “We spend $10 million each year to remove litter from our roads — but it costs nothing for each of us to do the easy thing and dispose of our trash responsibly.”

BIG PROBLEM, EASY SOLUTION

Litter on the roads is not just an eyesore. It has a harmful impact on safety, the environment and the economy. We all have a simple role to play in keeping Virginia’s roads clean.

• Keep a litter bag in the car to use while traveling to keep your vehicle tidy and reduce the chances of littering accidentally when you open a door or window.
• Hold on to trash while traveling until you reach your destination or a waste bin at a stop along the way. VDOT’s rest areas along the interstates have trash cans.
• Secure your load properly by tying it down and consider covering the entire load with a tarp or netting, and always double check to make sure items are secure.

Another way to get involved is by participating in VDOT’s Adopt-a-Highway program, which empowers people, organizations, and businesses to take charge of collecting litter along a section of a road. Volunteers commit to clean a two-mile stretch of VDOT-maintained roadway two times a year for at least three years.

About 3,500 Adopt-a-Highway participants, who sign up to volunteer as either an individual or group, remove approximately 25,000 bags of litter from Virginia roadsides each year. For more information on VDOT’s Adopt-a-Highway program, including an interactive map showing what stretches of roadway are available for adoption, visit VDOT’s website.

Additionally, through the Beautify Virginia program, community and civic organizations, businesses, nonprofit organizations and residents can sponsor litter pickups along segments of roadways, with a contractor performing the work on their behalf. Anyone interested in sponsoring can learn more on VDOT’s Beautify Virginia webpage.