Caltrans maintenance crews in the eight District 10 counties – Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne – were busy gathering 1,982 bags of litter. That’s enough trash to fill 28 Caltrans dump trucks.
Here were the totals for the different regions in District 10:
- San Joaquin County: 820 bags, or 117 cubic yards;
- Merced County: 455 bags, or 65 cubic yards;
- Stanislaus County: 383 bags, or 55 cubic yards;
- Sierra foothill counties: 324 bags, or 46 cubic yards;
For more information on the Adopt-A-Highway Program, please visit www.adopt-a-highway.dot.ca.gov or call coordinator Kathy Cockayne at (209) 948-7462.
The best anti-litter campaign is to ensure trash never makes it onto the highways in the first place.
Caltrans encourages you to:
· Carry a litter bag in your automobile and always dispose of trash properly;
· Never discard cigarette or cigar refuse improperly;
· Always cover and properly secure loads of trucks and pick-ups.
With everyone doing their part, we can keep California clean for today and the future.
Caltrans spent $270 million on litter removal throughout the State Highway System during the last five years, collecting 805,767 cubic yards of trash. That’s enough material to fill more than 80,000 Caltrans dump trucks.
In addition to the economic costs, litter presents a wide range of serious threats to the ecosystem and human health: Wildlife suffers from plastics in the environment; roadside vegetation is damaged by large debris; fires are started from burning cigarettes and threaten human health; harmful chemicals and biohazards cause a serious threat to human health; litter clogs roadway drainage systems and can lead to wet-weather highway flooding, congestion, and accidents. Litter aids in the spread of disease.
