County looks for solutions to litter problems

ROCKINGHAM — Frustration over the issue of litter in Richmond County has reached a fever pitch of late, with County Manager Bryan Land pleading with the public to help fight the “litter epidemic” at the most recent Board of Commissioners meeting.

Over the month of January, residents along with with Jeff Smart, chair of the Board of Commissioners, reported roadways in need of cleanup to the county’s solid waste department, headed by Assistant Public Works Director Bryan Leggett. The roadways reported over this period were Airport Road, U.S. 1 North, HWY 381 and HWY 38, the latter of which Land said was in “awful” shape with full bags of trash along the road.

“We’re trying every day, I mean I’m beating my head against the wall on this,” Land told the board this month.

John Garner, the long-time vice chair of the Board whose last meeting as a commissioner was in November 2020, said the issue of litter has been on the Board’s agenda for likely 20 years or longer. Over that time there have been periods of success but, he said, as soon as those leading it relaxed a little bit, the trash would come back.

The issue of litter is important because of the uncomfortable truth that visual perception is an important part of a community’s growth, according to Garner.

“Litter costs everyone,” he said in an interview Thursday. “It says something about your community and what kind of progress you’ve made. Everything we do is based on curb appeal and how you look — I hate to say it but it’s the truth.”

Asked if there are any specific opportunities he thinks the county missed out on due to the litter issue, Garner said any missed opportunity wouldn’t be solely due to litter, but that “I think we could’ve helped ourselves” take advantage of opportunities with a cleaner look.

At the November meeting, Garner urged county and municipal officials to adopt a code of standards for appearances. He said Thursday that the pandemic puts a hold on this because of the caution towards the idea of handling a stranger’s trash, and he’s had his own limitations after falling ill in the winter months.

Compounding the challenges are that the Department of Transportation (DOT) hasn’t been able to help county staff as much in recent month’s due to the agencies own financial hardships, according to Land. County staff, whom Land said “most” are 70 years old, have been under more pressure to pickup trash. Over the month of January, the county’s three employees that pick up trash collected 415 bags weighing a total of 5.1 tons, removed eight tires, and cleaned 19 roadways. County staff clean an average of 25 roadways per month, according to Leggett.

Leggett and his staff issued two citations relating to investigations into two illegal dump sites over this period, according to Land.

Looking for a solution

Solutions put forward have included pushing the Adopt-A-Highway program through DOT, as well as forming volunteer groups that are willing to regularly take on the issue. Richmond County has made an effort to inform more residents about the Adopt-A-Highway program, according to Leggett, and Leggett said he has personally gone to local schools to speak to children about recycling and littering where he has suggested to kids that they tell their parents to keep a plastic trash bag in their cars to keep them from littering.

Leggett has also called up former participants in Adopt-A-Highway asking them to ramp up their efforts again, according to Land, but speculated that those groups are dwindling and younger folks aren’t stepping in to help.

“The littering in Richmond County has always been an issue and I think there has been a lot of efforts attempted to address this issue, but it’s a constant and never ending battle,” Leggett said in an email. “The county has taken the approach to educate the citizens and make the citizens aware of projects offered through the state such as the Adopt-A-Highway program.”

There have been five new groups to sign contracts to adopt a highway in 2020, making for a total of 33 contracts in the county. Of these, eight are business organizations, five are churches, two are civic groups, one is an individual, 12 are families and five are classified as “other,” according to Kristan Dunn, administrative specialist with DOT. These 33 contracts represent adoption of 76.33 total miles or roadway, with the families responsible for the largest portion of that with 25.86 miles, followed by businesses and churches with 19.2 miles and 10.42 miles, respectively.

Dunn said that since mid-December, four groups have been created to adopt a highway in Richmond County and three more are in the process. If you are interested in adopting a highway, call Dunn at 910-944-7621.

“There are multiple roads still available in Richmond County for adoption and DOT or the (Adopt-A-Highway) program requires approval on a road,” Dunn said. “You would have to inquire about a certain road since there are so many for adoption to see if its available. It must be a state maintained road to be adopted.”

DOT asks volunteers to commit to at least four years of cleanups along a 2-mile stretch of roadway. Volunteers must cleanup their area four time per year and complete a report for DOT. For more information, visit https://apps.ncdot.gov/LM/.

The source of the problem

Leggett said he’s not certain of the source of the issue, whether it’s people coming to the county specifically looking to dispose of trash improperly or if it’s just carelessness. Single bottles, cups and fast-food bags, for example, are pretty much guaranteed to be intentional, but other cases could be bags that blow off of trailers accidentally.

He encourages people to stop and pick up a bag that has fallen in the road to make sure no one will run over it, to properly secure trash that you are transporting, and to carry a trash bag in their cars so there’s a defined place to put it — rather than the road.

“At the end of the day the community has to come together to get a handle on this littering issue,” Leggett said.

Leggett compares the issue of litter to crime, in that the public can come together to fill in the gaps that law enforcement, or in this case, the county’s solid waste staff, can’t handle on its own.

“A great analogy to use would be crime: the law enforcement cannot do it all so the community gets together and forms a neighborhood watch program and they work in conjunction with the law enforcement,” Leggett said. “We need the same here, the community needs to come together: county, municipalities, and citizens need to work together. Educate one another and take pride in where you live, don’t rely on the other person to clean it up.”

For more information on Richmond County’s convenience sites for trash, visit http://www.richmondnc.com/181/Solid-Waste-Recycling.