As we were driving down the interstate the other day, a plastic bag flew out of a truck bed. It ballooned and bobbed through the air like a nonchalant little ghost over the roofs of speeding vehicles.
From the back seat, I heard my 7-year-old gasp. “Pollution!”
These dark, cold days have us seeing more and more litter on roadsides, when most organized clean-up programs are on a seasonal break.
Joyce Lewis of Camano Island recently drove to Portland and was shocked by the amount of debris along the way.
“I don’t remember it ever being so unsightly,” she said. “There were even stretches where the plastic bags hanging in the trees had started to tear and disintegrate.”
Over 12 million pounds of litter are tossed or blown onto state roads each year, according to the state Department of Ecology.
The Department of Ecology’s Ecology Youth Corps employs young people to help tackle the problem, mostly over the summer months. (The application period for summer 2015 opens on Feb. 1. Return to the Street Smarts blog that day for more information.)
The state Department of Transportation also spends more than $3 million each year to pick up and dispose of litter. This includes payments to Department of Corrections crews.
WSDOT administers the Adopt-A-Highway program, which allows individuals and groups to get involved in clean-up work. Volunteers for that program must be at least 15 years old and in good health. Typical assigned sections include two to four miles of roadside.
Adopt-A-Highway is geared mostly at organized groups, but some individuals have gone through the safety training and go out four times a year to take care of their own little stretches of road, said Mel Reitz, coordinator for Skagit and Island counties.
Most sections of roadway have already been claimed, but there’s always some turnover, and rural and remote stretches often are overlooked.
Reitz suggested prospective volunteers first go over all the detailed information on the state’s Adopt-A-Highway website, then contact their local area coordinator if they want to take the next step. In west Snohomish County, call 425-258-8300. In east Snohomish County, call 360-805-1151. For Island County, call 360-848-7230.
You might just find Joyce among the ranks.
“I’m so there!”
Have a question? Email us at streetsmarts@heraldnet.com. Please include your name and city of residence. Look for updates on our Street Smarts blog.
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