HANCOCK COUNTY, Ohio — You could help save the state millions of dollars, and keep your neighborhoods clean, by doing something we all learn about in elementary school: throwing away your garbage.
With spring right around the corner, Ohioans will start seeing more Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) crews out working on the interstates and state highways.
One of the tasks these crews have to do, is clean up a problem that is completely preventable: litter.
Last Friday, ODOT press secretary Matt Bruning shared a video on social media of crews dealing with litter. He said it's a non-stop problem for ODOT, but the litter is heaviest between winter and spring.
On average, crews fill more than 400,000 bags with the trash per year.
However, the problem does not solely lie in people haphazardly throwing garbage out of their moving cars, but with open trailers hauling stuff as well.
"So we ask people, when you're hauling something, make sure you're putting a tarp over that, securing everything inside so nothing is going to be able to fly out of your vehicle," Bruning said.
According to him, it costs taxpayers about $4 million dollars per year to clean up litter - and that's even with inmate labor and Adopt a Highway volunteers.
That money could go a long way in ODOT's budget.
"It could pave a two-lane, 28-mile roadway. I mean, we could buy a bunch of snowplow trucks with that. Heck, we could fund our entire 'Safe Routes to Schools' program, we could double it," Bruning said.
For more information on ODOT projects, click here.
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