Beaufort County hopes better coordination results in less litter

Highway medians strewn with what looks like confetti are a common sight in Beaufort County.

No, a parade didn’t just roll through.

Those ribbons of plastic and paper are trash chopped to bits and flung around by state-owned lawn mower blades.

S.C Department of Transportation crews responsible for mowing medians will often move through an area before litter has been picked up, making the roadway cleanup process more difficult. That lack of coordination between Beaufort County, SCDOT and the 22 local Adopt a Highway volunteer groups — all of which play a role in cleaning up litter along roadways — has frequently led situations like this.

The county is working on a pilot program to help the three groups work better together.

“There’s nothing like (going to pick) up trash and then watching (SCDOT) lawnmowers run over it,” Beaufort County Councilwoman Alice Howard said during a recent county Public Facilities Committee meeting.

County public works director David Wilhelm said earlier this month that roadside trash confetti is evidence of need for better communication between the groups.

“A big part of the problem … (is that) people are sending crews out and no one is coordinating litter pick up with the (median grass) cutting,” he told the committee.

Under the county’s new program, which is set to roll out in early July, the Public Works Department will “take the lead” coordinating roadside litter control efforts, Wilhelm said.

“Any emails, phones calls and complaints that come in” will be routed to a single point of contact, and responses will be assigned so efforts aren’t duplicated or completed out of sequence — such as when medians are mowed before litter is picked up, he said.

According to county documents, the litter program coordinator “will not only work with the respective resources for litter cleanup … but also work with enforcement officers to locate problem areas and try to identify individuals who are illegally disposing waste.”

As part of the program, the county will “track our results and see how we do,” Wilhelm said.

Because the pilot program simply changes the way resources are used rather than using additional resources, no extra funding has been requested.

You might also be interested in this video:

This story was originally published June 30, 2016 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Beaufort County hopes better coordination results in less litter."