“The state of Maryland spends $8 million [a year] picking up trash,” said Valerie Burnette Edgar, spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration.
“Our maintenance forces could easily be filling potholes, redoing lines, fixing signs, mowing — this is money that could be put toward resurfacing,” she said.
And of course, littering can harm the environment. Stormwater can sweep trash into streams and rivers and even end up in reservoirs for drinking water and/or the Chesapeake Bay, SHA Administrator Greg Slater said.
“We all live here. Let’s keep our roads and this beautiful state litter-free,” he said.
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I've been to places that have trash cans on the side of the roads every once in awhile. By no means will that stop the ignorant people that pollute but it may help. The question lies in how much it will cost to then empty those trash cans lol
ReplyDeleteThat's a joke. Salisbury wicomico county spend nothing on cleaning up trash. I took a week to clean up our roads from shad point to upper ferry and literally filled the back of my truck. I couldn't stand to look at it everyday. I picked up everything from tires to household appliances to televisions. Now I can take about 15 minutes every other day and keep things clean. Still amazes me though in doing this I still fill a couple trash bags a week. Now its mostly beer bottles and cans. Take a ride down tower st in Salisbury it looks like county landfill
ReplyDeleteThere was less litter on the roads before the recycle sites where closed. Been noticing a lot more trash that could be recycled beginning to be on the sides of the country roads. This justifies the County to close these sites. Poor management.
ReplyDeleteEnforce anti litter laws and let the fines fund cleanup.
ReplyDeletePrivatize the trash cleanup and pay for it with Litter Fines, have Sherrif be more vigilant for littering that stopping drivers for simply rolling a Stop sign.
ReplyDeleteTry this one on for size:
ReplyDelete"We'd love to enforce anti litter laws, but would that then have LEOs chasing litters rather than killers in Salisbury?"
"There are too little resources on the streets today to maintain, we need more resources to address crime than for litter enforcement."
Catch 22 which will require more volunteerism to handle services gov't can no longer handle. If you think this is bad, wait until the Federal Gov't downsizing hits home!
AGAIN; there is NO excuse for this!!!
ReplyDeleteI participate in the Adopt-A-Highway program and that is not the solution. The solution is to enforce litter laws that are already on the books but with the enhancement that if the individual cannot be identified the car owner is responsible. This would clean things up.
ReplyDeleteDo they supply you with trash bags to use to clean roads at least??
DeletePut all the criminals to work cleaning up our roadways. They are getting free hot meals, beds, housing, cable tv and the best medical care. A great way for them to earn their keep.
ReplyDeleteI seriously doubt that any beer cans found along the road or anything else would be recycled if there were a recycle bin close by or along whatever road.
ReplyDeleteThe recycle sites have nothing to do with it. People just don't care. They just throw it out the window as they ride along. Out of sight out of mind.
ReplyDeletePrivatize road side clean up. Plus everyone needs to do there share, don't litter first off, but also if everyone picked up a little bit we could clean it up. 2 months ago I walked 4 miles and gathered 3 bags of garbage
ReplyDeleteMaryland highway workers could be doing productive things such as fixing pot holes , signs and mowing ? Please give me a break , the workers that I see are the most unproductive bunch of so called workers that exist. I see 1 person with a shovel and 6 people watching him , this happens all the time. I don't condone littering but if that what it takes to get these idiots off their a$$ then I'll litter in a heart beat.
ReplyDeleteAs for 12:24 statement , cans aren't worth much anymore , so out the window they go , especially beer cans . Don't want to be caught with an open container and DWI like our Westside Community Center manager Calvin Krause has for the second time in 2 years with multiple charges including DWI , drugs , doing 81 in a 50 mph zone , oh well he's just another county employee that we turn our eyes too.
Most of the roadside litter that I pick up is fast-food trash. Littering is a crime and needs to be punished by law enforcement with substantial fines. Littering hurts everyone be degrading our environment. Please do not litter and report vehicles that do.
ReplyDeleteDNR can also write littering citations.
ReplyDeletePeople lack respect these days. If more people who witness littering would report it to authorities with photos, and laws enforced with citations of $200, or whatever it is, maybe there wouldn't be so much trash along the roads. And then there are inmates.
ReplyDeletePeople have no integrity, common sense, work ethic or personal responsibility to even acknowledge the litter problem. It's not a problem if they don't own it... The majority of Salisbury has no pony in the beautification race.
ReplyDeletePermit low risk offenders out on a work release program to pick up the trash., They would love to get out of the jail for a few hours even if it is just to pick up trash.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe some lazy career welfare recipients.
10-15 years ago it seemed like the trash on the roadside was no longer a problem but as the economy tanked and prices/regs increased at transfer stations, the trash began to appear on the roads again. Go figure?
ReplyDeleteLiberals are disgusting people for all the littering they do, but some of you are just as disgusting for advocating that we need more police action on something relatively harmless like littering. And another one of you suggests snitching??
ReplyDeleteLook, if you want to get your butt out on the streets picking up someone else's trash, fine, but don't expect me to do it, too.
I thought they had work programs where the inmates would pick up trash along the roads. Is this a thing of the past. I know I have seen corrections vans with inmates picking up trash along the sides of the road. So they need to get on the ball and do more work instead of just killing time till they are released. Let's go criminal justice system get those inmates humping getting up that trash. If they don't want to work shoot them in the knee. Lol At least then they will have a reason to stay in their cells.
ReplyDeleteWe already have laws against it, and hefty fines for convictions. So now let's throw some words at the problem. Let's see how that works.
ReplyDelete