Budgets slashed for litter cleanup, public awareness

Expect more litter on highways in Snohomish County and around Washington.

The state is slashing the budget for cleaning litter off the highways and for programs aimed at stopping people who litter.

And while state officials are hoping that people will respond by being more responsible, they also acknowledge that’s unlikely to happen.

“Litter attracts more litter,” said Peter Christiansen, section manager for the state Department of Ecology.

The Department of Ecology and the state Department of Transportation are both charged with keeping highways clean around Washington.

The ecology department suffered $7 million in cuts to its program to clean up litter or to recycle material found on roadways for the two-year budget that began July 1. The cuts represent more than a third of what the department thought it would have.

That means the department will have less money for clean-up crews statewide. The department hires teens and prisoners for clean-up efforts. It’ll also have no money for awareness campaigns.

While WSDOT isn’t losing money from its budget for cleaning litter, the agency says that keeping roadways clean is a low priority. The Department of Transportation spends only about 2 percent of its $335 million biennium budget for litter control because it’s not one of its priorities.

“We have to balance picking up litter with other issues that impact riders on the road,” spokeswoman Alice Fiman said.

Christiansen oversees the litter program for the ecology department in seven counties, including Snohomish.

The cuts affect Snohomish County because there will be less money to clean up the I-5 corridor, he said. Usually, the department hires four crews of teenagers to clean I-5 and the highways in Snohomish County every summer. This year, it’s only staffing two crews.

The department also shut down the “Litter and It Will Hurt” campaign hotline, by which people could call to report litterers, and cut grants given to schools for environmental projects.

The hotline program was stopped earlier this month. People were calling less after advertising campaigns for the hot line were stopped due to previous cuts, spokeswoman Kathy Davis said.

This year, the most calls the hotline received were 890 in June. After a summer advertising campaign in 2009, the hotline received more than 4,000 in a month, Christiansen said.

The biggest risk litter poses to drivers is when a load is not properly secured and junk comes off a moving vehicle, Christiansen said.

Meanwhile, roadways full of trash can hurt tourism and are considered dangerous to wildlife that eat trash off highways, he said.

There’s only one way to get litter under control, Fiman said. And that’s if people stop littering.

In Snohomish, the Monroe Correctional Complex has received funds from the Department of Ecology for its clean up crew.

The county also has received funds since 2000 that go to the solid waste division, and those are being reduced for the next two years.

For this biennium, the county received $92,000 in grants to be used to clean up illegal dump sites, said Matt Zybas, solid waste director for Snohomish County.

“We are considering working with (the Department of Corrections) to see about utilizing work-release crews for roadside clean-up,” he said in an email, “but our concern is that we get a crew up and running again only to lose funding again.”

In early 2009, the county was awarded a two-year grant of $127,200 from the Department of Ecology. The county was informed last year that the grant would be reduced by half, Zybas said. The remaining funds were spent, and the division discontinued roadside cleanup, he said.

There are no current data as to whether litter is increasing or decreasing on highways and roads. The Department of Transportation is doing a survey to grade the levels of service it provides in different areas, including litter pick-up.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.