County-wide clean up a success; future anti-litter efforts planned

ROCKINGHAM — Today, Richmond County is cleaner than it has been in a long time, thanks to a county-wide effort to pick up trash and litter that scattered roadsides throughout the county.

After the initial date was postponed due to inclement weather, 39 groups consisting of 487 volunteers collected 404 bags of trash weighing 6,449 pounds as part of the Earth Day Community Clean Up effort on Saturday.

“I would consider our efforts to have made an impact on Richmond County’s litter issue,” said Richmond County Assistant Public Works Director Bryan K. Leggett. “I think this has definitely made an awareness in our community and it is great to see the community’s participation and excitement. Overall, I think Earth Day was a success.”

The event represented a county-wide partnership — organized by Richmond County Aging Services — between local governments who have been engaged in legal battles for over a year, between private businesses and between groups of community members to clean up the county and change the culture around litter.

Harold Tedder was part of a group of volunteers from Faith Missionary Baptist Church that picked up trash along Battley Dairy Road and Airport Road. He said he and his wife caught wind of the community clean-up efforts from Leggett and county Public Works Director Jerry Austin.

“It’d be nice to ride down the road and not see trash everywhere,” Tedder said. “So, it’s much needed. You ride down the road and see trash scattered on the road – it’s just not good, especially in our county. We have a small county and we should be proud to keep it looking nice.”

Tedder’s family owns a business, Tedder Trash Solutions, which picks up household garbage in the county, and he said he offered his company’s trucks to the clean-up efforts to help pick up bags and take them to the dump.

“It’s something we wanted to be a part of,” Tedder said. “We decided we wanted to help, and (people) could use our trash trucks if they wanted. We could use our trucks, trailers and come pick the trash up — we’d do whatever to help. We wanted to help spread the word to get other churches and other organizations involved.”

Pat Swails, who was with a group from Richmond Community College picking up trash on Hatcher Road and Airport Road, said the fact that they had to set aside a day for county-wide trash pickup shows how bad the issue is.

“When you throw it out the window, someone has to pick it up,” Swails said. “If people didn’t litter, we wouldn’t have to set aside this day. But this does allow you to get up close and personal with nature, just being outside.”

Other groups and their respective assigned roads included:

• American Woodmark on Freeman Mill Road

• Hamlet Depot and Museum on Highway 38 and Hamlet City Lake

• Sweet Haven Church on Midway Road

• RSHS Beta Club on Mizpah Road

• Superior Cranes on Highway 74

Volunteers in Hoffman opted to go ahead and clean up their community on the original April 24 date, despite the rain. A group of 19 volunteers picked up all the paper, cans and bottles along the one-mile stretch of U.S. 1 that runs through the town. This group has made a commitment to conduct this clean up quarterly for the next two years, inspired by the county-led effort.

“We looked at it as a way to help beautify the neighborhood and make it more appealing to live here,” Andrew Gibson previously told the Daily Journal.

Other groups, including one from REMAX Southern Realty, also went ahead with picking up trash earlier in the week, as well. Volunteers from REMAX cleaned up along Spring Street in Hamlet and Airport Road in Rockingham on April 29.

“This has allowed some groups to pick-up throughout the week and not be obligated to a certain day which helped to achieve participation from all groups,” Leggett said.

Tedder and Swails both said they think the cleanup should become a more regular occurrence, rather than a one-off or once per year event.

“We need to do it more often,” Tedder said. “I think they’re talking about doing it more often. Instead of once per year, we should talk about maybe doing it quarterly or just doing it more than once per year to help keep our roads cleaned up.”

Leggett said some of the organizations and groups of volunteers have already made commitments to continue their efforts weekly, monthly or quarterly.

“I think it should be more than just one day per year,” Swails said. “I think we need to set aside days to have trash pickup because some roads are worse than others, like 74 of course is busier than other places.”