Nine Years ago, I wrote about the high cost of litter per state. Virginia’s cost of litter was at that time $25 Million. That was in 2009. Can you imagine how much that cost has grown over the last 9 years? Since 80% of the marine debris comes from land.. you can imagine how much of the litter and trash goes into Chesapeake Bay and it’s Virginia shoreline of 7213 Miles.
Virginia has:
23 State Parks 5 State Forests • 2 State Fish Hatcherys, 2 State Wildlife Management Areas • 2 National Parks
2 National Forests • 1 National Historic Site • 3 National Historic Parks, 1 National Wildlife Refuge, 1 National Recreation Area.
Unfortunately, there is not too much on the cost of litter, but what there is dramatic increases in Roadside Litter and many opportunities to get involved in highway cleanup.
- Mar 28, 2007 – In the past two weeks, litter on Suffolk’s secondary roads has doubled…. since July, the city has picked up 570,000 pounds of litter – old tires, soda cans and bottles, furniture, appliances, food wrappers, toys and soiled diapers……As a result, state funding to Suffolk increased to $15.1 million from $7.2 million
- July 2008 to June 2009: Hampton Clean City Commission (HCCC) volunteers picked up 230,565 cigarette ends from Hampton roadways and public areas. On several heavily traveled roadways, volunteers simply reported “too many to count” and picked up as many as they could. HCCC volunteers have been picking up and counting cigarette ends since 2000. In approximately 10 years, they have reported picking up nearly a quarter of a million cigarette ends. (Source)
- 2015, the Litter Control Program Fauquier County collected and disposed of more than 56 tons of debris from county roads and illegal dumping sites.
- 2016: Hanover County Department of Public Works collected over 374,000 pounds of litter from roadways. Unfortunately, this costs our citizens over $69,000.00,” Sheriff David R. Hines “It is the goal of the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office and Department of Public Works to educate the public on litter laws, reduce the cost of litter collection to our citizens and to keep our roadways clean and free of trash.” (Source)
- May 2017: Wythe County has collected 140,000 pounds of trash; that’s 70 tons of litter. In 10 months.
- 2017: Smyth County, crews collected 11,995 bags of trash last year… 187 tires were collected. That’s a low number. Some years, crews collect 400 to 500 tires.
- 2018- 5,000 pounds of litter per week for Bland, Wythe and Smyth counties
Clean Virginia Waterways conducted a study which showed that one cigarette end killed 80% of the daphnia (water fleas) in 2 gallons of water. The 230,000+ cigarette ends picked up by HCCC volunteers in 2009 could have contaminated over 460,000 gallons of water in our creeks and rivers. https://www.hampton.gov/958/Keep-America-Beautiful-Litter-Research
Littering is Illegal. Section 33.1-346 of the Code of Virginia makes littering or dumping trash a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 12 months in jail* and/or a fine of up to $2,500.
You can see more about Virginia’s littering, pollutions and illegal dumping on our Pinterest Board.
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