Highway Litter

Keeping our highways clean is a difficult challenge. It is likely that we have all accidentally littered. The composition of trash found along highways characterizes the most frequent litterers, and reflects on our society. Similar results have emerged from many studies.

Cigarette butts along with other tobacco-related items are by far the most abundant trash found along highways. If smokers insist on compromising their health by smoking, they at least need to learn to use their ash trays and dispose of the contents properly (not in a parking lot).

After tobacco products, refuse from the fast food industry is the most abundant trash found alongside highways. Beverage cups, caps and straws, along with product packaging are the most common items, about equally divided between plastic and more easily degradable paper. Household items, especially food-related, constitute the next most abundant category of debris. In most cases the brand name is identifiable. Aluminum cans are usually obvious because they are shiny, but they constitute only about 10% of all highway debris. Glass only contributes only a few percent to the debris. Items associated with smoking and eating make up nearly two-thirds of the debris collected from typical highways during clean-up.

Clearly, the fast-food industry, including convenience stores, needs to be more responsible in using easily degradable packaging, in trying to educate people, especially children, not to litter the roadside and in taking responsibility by helping to clean up the highways around their stores. In Northumberland County, the only food-related enterprise that has adopted a highway is Cockrell’s Creek Seafood Deli and none of the fast-food stores in Kilmarnock have adopted highways in Lancaster County. But it is ultimately the litterers themselves who are responsible for almost of all our highway trash, and who are subject to fines for their actions.

In addition to food and smoking-related items, just about anything can be found alongside highways. Hubcaps are common, and certainly accidental. It is difficult to understand, however, how a battery can fall out of a vehicle accidentally. We must conclude, unfortunately, that a few people consciously use the highways as dumps.

In Northumberland County, 169 miles of highway have been adopted by 70 sponsors at then end of 2003. The list of adopted highways along with the list of sponsors (also reproduced below) can be found at the NAPS web site www.geocities.com/northumberlandnaps. Citizen concern for clean highways is exemplary in Northumberland County, where there are more sponsors than in the other three Northern Neck counties combined. But there are some glaring problems. A visitor journeying along our major highways will currently find 7 stretches along US 360 and VA 200, 201 and 202 with blue Adopt-a-Highway signs announcing they are “OPEN FOR ADOPTION.” The white “OPEN FOR ADOPTION” plates, installed over the previous sponsor’s name, stand out like sore thumbs and announce that some sponsor stopped cleaning the highway, and nobody will assume the responsibility. Surely, we can do better!

Here is a list of abandoned adoption stretches on major highways or visible from them, in addition to two stretches never adopted, together with the names of adjoining adopters.

US 360 between VA 657 and VA 703 (Cockrell’s Creek Seafood Deli)

US 360 at Burgess, between VA 646N (Chesapeake Bay Garden Club) and VA 640N

US 360 west of Burgess between VA 640N and VA 752 (Macedonia Brotherhood Club)

US 360 between VA 612 (Northumberland Senior FAA Chapter) and VA 614 (Coan River Marina) – never adopted

US 360 between VA 202 and the county line

VA 200 between VA 609 at Wicomico Church (NAPS) and VA 606 (Lancaster-Northumberland Master Gardeners)

VA 201 south of Heathsville

VA 202 east of Callao between USMC League #1062 and James E. Headley Oyster Company – never adopted

VA 640 north of US 360

Will you help? For businesses it is great free advertisement along heavily traveled roads. The requirements are simple, and can be found at www.virginiadot.org or by calling 1-800-PRIDE-VA.

Here is a list of current sponsors in Northumberland County provided by VDOT, as of December 2003. If you find an error, please tell NAPS so the error can be corrected and we can keep the lists up-to-date.

Acheson Family

Afton United Methodist Church

Bay Harbor Property Owners

Bay Quarter Shores Youth

Bayview Estates & White Sands Harbor (A.C.T.)

Bluegreen Properties of VA

“The Boy Scouts”

Callao Ruritan Club

Chesapeake Bay Garden Club

Coan Baptist Youth Group

Coan River Marina

Cockrell’s Creek Seafood Deli

Community of Lara

Dividing Creek Association

Friends and Neighbors of Bogey Neck Road

Friends in Horn Harbor

Garka Family

Graceland Farms

Greater Wicomico Sportsman Club

Hacks Neck Hunt Club

Henderson Methodist Youth Fellowship

Highland Point Community

Hull Harbour

James E. Headley Oyster Company

Jetty’s Reach

Jones-Ash Funeral Home

Kauffman/Simmons Family

Keyser Brothers Seafood

Kingston Crew

Knights Run Hunt Club

Lake Packing Co., Inc.

Lancaster-Northumberland Master Gardeners

Landmark Services Inc.

Locksley Hall Estates/Forest Green Association

Loonan Family

Lottsburg VDOT Team

Macedonia Brotherhood Club

Memory of Otis F. Palmer

Men of Sherwood Forest

Men of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Fleeton

Mid-County Volunteer Rescue Squad

Neighbors Along 609

Neighbors for a Clean Highway

Northern Neck Center of the MPNN-CSB

NAPS

Northumberland Junior Women’s club

Northumberland Lions Club

Northumberland Lodge 220

Northumberland Preservation, Inc.

Northumberland Senior FAA Chapter

Old Bundick Steamboat Wharf

Owl Haven Farm

Peaceful Point Farm

Pride of Virginia Seafood

Reedville Fishermen’s Museum

Rehoboth Church Ruritan Club

Remo Hunt Club

Rivers Knoll Home Owners Association

Scripture Farms

Shiloh Baptist Church

Smithland Royal Ambassadors and Brotherhood

Stratford Harbour Property Owner’s Assoc., Inc.

Sunnybank Property Owners

Swann’s Motor Service

The Wirts and The Johnstons

Tides on the Chesapeake Association

Tidewater Hunt Club

Timberlake Plumbing

USMC League #1062

Zapata Protein