RICHMOND -- There’s a lot of litter out there and plenty of Virginians are ready to fight it this spring. Local litter program coordinators, volunteers, teachers, students, State Police, state foresters and many others are part of a coordinated campaign to free Virginia’s roadsides, waterways, parks and localities of litter.

“Controlling litter along our roadsides, waterways and throughout the Commonwealth is an important aspect of preserving Virginia’s natural beauty for future generations,” said Secretary of Natural Resources W. Tayloe Murphy Jr. “This campaign brings together multiple state agencies, localities and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to achieve this shared objective.”

“Improving the way state government does business has been a principal focus of Governor Warner’s administration,” said Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer. “Under his leadership, we have made great progress in improving VDOT and the other transportation agencies. This campaign is a continuation of our efforts to achieve greater efficiencies throughout our operations.”

From April 9 through June 30, litter education, prevention, cleanup and law enforcement activities will be held around the state. Many are scheduled between April 9 and April 23, which includes Historic Garden Week and Earth Day.

The activities are part of a three-pronged effort among several Virginia state agencies to make the best use of their varied litter-related resources to reduce litter. The other efforts are to revitalize the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT’s) Adopt-a-Highway volunteer roadside litter cleanup program and to improve communications between the VDOT program’s local coordinators and the litter control coordinators for cities, towns and counties.

Among the many groups involved in the coordinated spring effort are:

• Adopt-a-Highway volunteers, who traditionally clean their adopted roadsides just before Historic Garden Week. Many plan their litter pickups for Sat., April 16.
• Adopt-a-Stream volunteers, who remove litter in and along rivers, streams and creeks. Balls of used fishing line and other debris can kill fish, birds and other wildlife.
• Other local litter prevention volunteers, who clean up wildlife management areas, local parks, neighborhood streets and other public areas.
• Elementary, middle and high school teachers, who create hands-on litter prevention and cleanup classroom activities that support science, history and social science Standards of Learning.
• State Police troopers, who will increase emphasis on detecting litter violations and the prevention of “accidental” litter through the failure to secure loads on trucks.
• State forestry staff, who will provide pocket ashtrays for state parks’ visitors to increase awareness of the potential for forest fires caused by tossed cigarette butts.

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Information in VDOT news releases was accurate at the time the release was published. For the most current information about projects or programs, please visit the project or program Web pages. You may find those by searching by keyword in the search Virginia DOT box above.

Page last modified: Aug. 28, 2008