Highway litter has always been a big issue.
Adopt-A-Highway has spent years trying to keep the highways trash free with the help of volunteers.
In 2012, an estimated 127,268 bags of trash from U.S. Highways by crews assembled by Adopt-A-Highway.
This weekend marks the 28th Annual ‘Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off.’ Participating volunteers will hit the roads for the largest one-day clean up event in the state.
Approximately 403 million pieces of trash end up on Texas Highways each year, and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spent $47 million on litter pickup in 2013.
TxDOT is hoping they are able to match last year’s 61,000 volunteers, who collected more than 6 million pounds of trash.
Through litter removal and raising awareness to the litter issue, the goal is to prevent situations like one that happened Wednesday night near New Braunfels, Texas.
A truck driver traveling on I-35 found himself unable to avoid a plastic trash bag laying inn the road. Consequently, the bag was caught under the truck and managed to wrap itself around the fuel and hydraulic lines – causing them to break open.
The driver pulled over to the side of the road immediately, knowing that something was wrong.
Fluid from the breakage spilled for a half mile stretch, and emergency crews were called to clean the fluids which had spilled all over the highway.
The incident closed down the outer two lanes of I-35 until 10 p.m.
Littering impacts many people on the roadway. Learn more about getting involved with Adopt-A-Highway here.
Source
RadioNB
Archer County News