The first of several seasonal roadway cleanups in Maryland brought in an eye-popping amount of garbage last week, prompting a longtime plea from the state’s highway administration to drivers.
Operation Clean Sweep collected more than 1,500 pounds of trash and debris, including illegally-dumped tires, battered mattresses and mangled car parts, said the administration’s spokesperson, Shanteé Felix.
“We picked up about 300 truckloads of litter,” she told WTOP. “We found dolls’ heads and even pedicure chairs. We found a lot of things.”
The large collection of junk has renewed an old request to drivers not to litter.
“Put litter where it belongs — in the trash,” Felix said.
She said the program is costly and time-consuming.
In 2023, state workers gathered nearly 500,000 bags of litter, costing more than $18 million. Last year, workers collected a little less trash, about 420,000 bags, with a price tag of $17 million.
Felix also said the roadway rubbish can lead to bigger problems, including polluting the Chesapeake Bay and other smaller waterways and clogging drains.
“That can lead to water ponding on the roads or flooding and create a hazard on the highway,” Felix said.
The administration said the junk most likely comes from a combination of illegal dumping and drivers chucking trash out of moving vehicles.
Felix asks motorists to remember where they spot the debris and report it and the administration will send a cleanup crew.
“It’s a nuisance and a hazard,” she said. “We just want people to put it where it belongs.”
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