Nearly 300 groups, with more than 2,600 participants, are registered to comb Mountain State main and back roads, picking up tons of trash.
Saturday’s statewide Adopt-A Highway spring cleaning should make our country roads much less cluttered. Nearly 300 groups, with more than 2,600 participants, are registered to comb Mountain State main and back roads, picking up tons of trash.
The annual spring cleanup is hosted by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Division of Highways.
Terry Fletcher, the chief communications officer for the DEP, said volunteers will be provided with all necessary protective gear and pick up materials.
Fletcher said DEP is hoping to recruit more Adopt-A-Highway groups and members with the statewide event.
“We have a Youth Environmental Program that does a really great job with helping to promote this as well,” Fletcher said. “They’re talking to school groups and students across the state about ways they can join in and pitch in to help clean up their communities.”
Fletcher said tossed out trash is not just an eyesore – it’s an environmental hazard and a physical danger.
”This stuff that you throw out of your car, it’s gonna find its way into a stream,” he said. “It’s gonna find its way into people’s yards and into our forests, stuff that can cause all kinds of environmental issues and problems.”
Fletcher said a spring cleanup goal is to surpass the 68,000 pounds of trash removed from more than 800 miles of roadway last year.
Click here for information on how to get involved.
The Department of Environmental Protection is accepting volunteers for the state’s spring highway cleanup later this month.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is accepting volunteers for the state’s spring highway cleanup later this month.
The Adopt-A-Highway litter cleanup program is scheduled for April 29. It’s open to individuals and families, as well as churches, businesses, schools and civic organizations.
It’s organized by the DEP’s Rehabilitation and Environmental Action Plan (REAP) to “save taxpayers money by increasing public awareness and to serve as an educational tool by focusing on the consequences which result when littering is allowed to continue unchecked,” according to the program’s web page.
Volunteers can sign up to help pick up trash on any state-maintained road, back road or main route. The program will provide garbage bags, work gloves and safety vests and will dispose of all trash collected by volunteers.
Last year, 2,700 individual volunteers signed up for the spring cleanup, with 68,350 pounds of litter removed from state roads.
Groups can register by calling 1-800-322-5530 or emailing dep.aah@wv.gov by April 21. If a voicemail is reached, REAP tells volunteers to leave their name, phone number, group name, date of cleanup, number of participants and the county in which the road is located.
Individuals must be 12 years old or older to volunteer.
People who want to help clean up West Virginia can submit an application for the Make It Shine Spring Statewide Cleanup.
The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan sponsors the annual event.
The program provides cleanup materials, waste hauling and landfill fees to community groups that volunteer to clean up litter in state streams or on public lands. The event will be held April 2 through April 16, and applications are due March 11, the department said.
Participants are encouraged to wear masks and practice social distancing during the cleanups.
Last year, more than 4,800 volunteers removed over 754,000 pounds of litter and collected 1,850 tires from 737 acres of public lands and 46 miles of streams, the agency said.
The Ohio River Sweep annual volunteer cleanup is changing this year as a result of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Large numbers of volunteers usually participate in the event, so organizers have introduced “Mini-Sweeps.”
Participants in West Virginia choose the date and location, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan and the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission will provide support and supplies for a socially distanced cleanup event, officials said.
Events can be held between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31 in small groups to allow for social distancing, the Department of Environmental Protection said in a news release.
ORSANCO has partnered with environmental protection agencies in West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania since 1989 on the Ohio River Sweep. The effort extends the entire length of the river with volunteers from the six states bordering the river removing litter.
Volunteers who want to participate can email DEPwvmis@wv.gov or call (800) 322-5530 to plan their cleanup and arrange for supplies, the release said.
Berkeley County’s Community Service Roadside Litter Program, which launched three years ago, is the only litter program in the state that is full-time, runs five days a week and uses community service day-in-and-day-out. Most of the participants are people who have chosen community service instead of being incarcerated.
“Community service has a big part to do with it,” said Allen Hart, deputy marshal for the Berkeley County Courthouse. “If we wouldn’t have community service, we wouldn’t be able to do this job.”
Hart and his partner, fellow deputy marshal Noel Ebersole, spend their workday supporting the program participants by driving alongside them as they walk various roadways in the county — from back roads to the highway.
Participants toss full bags of litter onto Hart’s truck. Often they collect 40-85 bags of litter a day over a distance of just two to four miles.
Liz McCormick/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Participants in the Berkeley County Community Service Roadside Litter Program are often individuals who have opted to do community service instead of serve time in jail.
Ebersole drives a small bus with a bathroom, drinking water and hand sanitizers ahead of the group. The participants get breaks throughout the day and are also fed lunch.
“What I’ll do is stay a couple hundred yards in front of them,” Ebersole said. “And we keep the people in between us, so we keep an eye on them and keep them safe.”
Litter waste in the U.S. increased during the coronavirus pandemic. Garbage workers had to pivot, halting some waste pickups, and people used more plastic bags, containers and disposable masks. According to the Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study, more than 200 million personal protective equipment (PPE) items were littered on U.S. roadways and waterways through early fall.
West Virginia has also experienced an increase in litter waste, but counties have been trying to tackle it.
Over its three years, the Berkeley County Community Service Roadside Litter Program has serviced more than 120 different roads within the county and amassed more than 476,000 pounds of litter.
The program also recently hit a major milestone. It’s serviced more than 1,000 miles of road since it began and collected more than 9,000 bags of litter.
Sandy Rogers, program manager for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan program, or REAP, provides West Virginia counties with support like grants and bags for litter cleanup.
Rogers said Berkeley County likely collects the most bags of any county. Berkeley is the fastest-growing county in the state and has seen a population boom in recent years.
“I think the more people you have in an area, the more litter you’ll see on the side of the road,” Rogers said. “These high traffic areas — you’re going to notice that more.”
From 2010 to 2019, Berkeley County has grown by 15,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s an increase of more than 14 percent.
This population growth and subsequent increase in litter is one of the reasons why the litter program in Berkeley County was started.
Liz McCormick/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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Allen Hart, deputy marshal for the Berkeley County Courthouse (left) and his partner, fellow deputy marshal Noel Ebersole (right), place signs along the roadways to let drivers know the litter crew is working.
“We took it upon ourselves to try to start a program to not only beautify Berkeley County but also to boost people’s morale, even the ones that are in community service,” said Berkeley County Council President Doug Copenhaver.
Berkeley’s roadside litter program is housed under the Berkeley County Council. “The whole intention of the whole program is never, ever beat somebody down, but to bring them up,” Copenhaver said.
Along with the council, the county’s judicial system plays a big role and provides workers for the program. Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Catie Wilkes-Delligatti said the program helps to hold offenders accountable while allowing them to remain home with their families.
“This is a way for them to repay their debt to our community,” Wilkes-Delligatti said. “It’s utilizing people who are available to us to make our community a better place to live, both by beautifying the streets but also by repaying a wrong that they’ve committed to our society.”
The program also saves the county money. Copenhaver said the county’s regional jail bill has gone down by about $1.5 million since 2016. While the litter program didn’t launch until 2018, Copenhaver thinks the program has made a positive impact on the county budget.
The Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority is another community partner in the litter program. At the end of every day, the bags that are loaded up onto Allen Hart’s truck are left at one of two drop-off points for the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority. Clint Hogbin, who has been the head of the solid waste authority for nearly 30 years, said the litter program is making a difference.
“It takes five or six different agencies to make this work,” Hogbin said. “And the solid waste authority was thrilled that when we all sat down at our very first meeting, and we went around, ‘What can you do? What can you do? What can you do?’ And next thing we knew, all the pieces of the puzzle had fallen into place, literally very quickly.”
Hogbin said once the waste is dropped off at the solid waste authority, a regional waste agency called Apple Valley Waste will pick up all the bags for free. Some of the bags even go to Entsorga West Virginia — a new waste-to-energy facility that opened in the county a few years ago.
“Berkeley County’s investing in people,” said Mike Laing, Berkeley County’s chief court marshal and the head of the roadside litter program. “They’re not just putting them in jail. Everybody has a bad day, and they’re giving people alternatives to get their lives straightened out, and I think that’s really what Berkeley County is standing for.”
While Laing and other county officials say they are proud of the program, they also note they are disheartened by the continuous need for litter cleanup efforts.
“It’s been well-received by the public, but the sad part is there’s a need for it,” Laing said. “[But] anytime that you can have programs that better individuals, saves the taxpayers’ money … it pays dividends.”
Lawmakers in the House have approved a bill that would increase the penalties for littering in the state.
Littering on public or private property in West Virginia is already a misdemeanor, but House Bill 2303 increases the fines and community service hours associated with it.
Fines in the bill are subject to the amount of trash a person disposes of improperly and are decided by a judge. They range from 100 to ten thousand dollars. The maximum amount of community service hours also increases in the bill to 200 hours, with a minimum of 8 required.
Delegate Rupie Phillips of Logan County, the only Independent member of the state Legislature, is the lead sponsor of the littering bill. He said he feels the penalties are reasonable, but wishes they were even stronger.
“If I was in committee, I woulda stood stronger on a stiffer bottom dollar than where they went,” Phillips noted, “but like I said, we got a bill out, and it raised; the community service I mean, to go from just a few hours to possible 100 hours or possible 200 hours, I mean, just whatever. It’s just like I said, let’s just make West Virginia shine.”
