Over 12 million pounds of litter are tossed or blown onto state roads each year, according to the Department of Ecology.
As the weather warms, preparations are underway to start picking up the pace of picking it all up.
Teenagers age 14-17 interested in a summer job with the Ecology Youth Corps can now apply.
There are fewer positions available because of dwindling dollars. But the young litter-bug busters can still put an awful big dent in the problem. Last year’s youth corps of 228 teens picked up 501,275 pounds of litter from 3,051 miles of roadways and 17 illegal dump sites.
A local teen’s experience
Nicole Bagby of Everett was among last summer’s Snohomish County Ecology Youth Corps crew.
Bagby was finishing her eighth-grade year at Voyager Middle School when her grandmother showed her the newspaper, which had a notice about the summer job. She applied and was accepted.
The job wasn’t easy — but it was rewarding.
“It’s hot in the summer, and you’re in jeans and boots. You’re constantly squatting, so your legs and back hurt. But to see how much you picked up … and look back and see all you’ve done, it’s pretty cool,” she said.
Each person on her team would pick up litter for a roughly one-tenth mile stretch of roadway, sometimes filling four large garbage bags. They would separate recyclables from garbage.
Safety was a big deal, she said. When out in the field, they had to wear hard hats, gloves, glasses, reflective vests and boots. Staying hydrated was stressed.
What did they find?
“Omigosh, so many disgusting things,” she said. “I was honestly scared sometimes — not because of the cars, but because of the bugs and the snakes. I’ve never seen so many dead birds.” Mice and spiders, too — of the very-much-alive kind.
A decomposing animal carcass was probably the most revolting find. A mattress was the largest. The most common finds included work gloves, dollar bills and chunks of tire tread. “Sometimes almost a whole tire. Tires are heavy — I didn’t know until this job.” She kept a running collection of family photos. The teens decorated the van with found toys. And then there was the $100 bill that the crew got to split and keep.
“It was hard work but we made it pretty fun,” Bagby said.
Bagby, now 15 and finishing her freshman year at Mariner High School, said she plans to find a different job this summer because of a schedule that includes sports camps.
“It was a really great opportunity and I’d totally recommend it to other teens, because you can’t get other jobs when you’re 14,” she said.
Good work experience
The job, which pays $11 per hour, is one of the few available to teens these days.
The unemployment rate for youth ages 16-24 sits at 16.5 percent in the state, according to Census estimates. That rate goes up to 25 percent when looking at the youngest of that group, 16- to 19-year-olds. The figures look only at youth who are working or seeking work and not those who, for example, are committed to school full-time.
Youth unemployment is a concern because studies show work experience in the teen years sets youth up for better job prospects in the future.
For some teens, Ecology Youth Corps is even more than a job, said Steven Williams, regional litter administrator for the state Department of Ecology. Several alumni of the Youth Corps have written back years later to say the experience was a part of what drove them to study environmental issues in college, he said.
That’s one reason he’s concerned by the dwindling dollars going to the litter program in recent years as the Legislature shifts money to other programs, such as state parks.
“They’re free to do what they want,” he said. “There are impacts.”
Historically, Ecology Youth Corps programs would hire 18 teens from Snohomish County and 350 statewide. This year, it will probably be no more than a dozen teens from Snohomish County and 250 statewide.
Since the budget cuts started in 2009, 1,200 fewer young people have been hired. There’s some hope that the dollars will start coming back. House Bill 1060 proposes shifting the dollars back in 2017.
In Snohomish County, the summer youth crews focus on I-5 and a portion of I-405, and sometimes U.S. 2 and Highway 9.
Safety is the top priority, Williams said. If a supervisor doesn’t like the way something looks, such as a curve in the road, then they’ll back out. “It’s just litter.” On bad-weather days, teens clean a park or natural resources area instead.
Ecology also hires people 18 and older to clean more challenging roadways such as freeway medians, busy interchanges, and high-traffic areas.
How to apply
The application deadline for summer youth crews (ages 14-17) is April 10. Applications and further details are at www.ecy.wa.gov.
Adults and teenagers age 15 and older also can volunteer to pick up litter through the state Department of Transportation Adopt-A-Highway program.
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