Highway litterbugs leaving costly tab

Franklin County has the trashiest highways in Ohio.

Crews collected more litter along ODOT roadways in Franklin County — and spent more money doing it — than anywhere in the state last year.

"You can pick up litter 365 days a year and it looks like you haven’t done anything," said Scott Rice, an Ohio Department of Transportation highway worker who was bagging trash last week at I-270 and I-70 on the West Side.

Crews collected nearly 65,000 bags of trash along the 970 lane miles of ODOT roads in Franklin County in 2003. The rate of 67 bags per lane mile was well ahead of the second highest county, Montgomery, where crews collected 50 bags per lane mile.

"Litter pickup for our crews in Franklin County is consistently the second-highest labor draw behind snow and ice removal," said Thomas Lyden, ODOT’s highway management administrator for central Ohio.

The state spent $286,425 cleaning up litter along Franklin County roadways last year. Statewide, the bill was $2.3 million.

"For taxpayers, it’s ridiculous that we’re spending that kind of time and money on litter when our crews could better spend their time on potholes, guardrails and preventive highway maintenance," Lyden said.

The cost would be dramatically reduced if motorists stopped tossing litter from car windows and trash haulers kept their loads properly covered, he said.

"It’s a decision that’s literally in taxpayers’ hands."

The problem is so extensive in Franklin County that ODOT bought a $50,000 Barber Litter Picker that it began using this spring. The tractor-towed machine uses stainless-steel tines rotating on a conveyor belt to rake up trash and dump it in a hopper.

The machine can collect up to 700 bags of litter in an eight hour day; the average worker can collect 20 to 25 bags in the same period, said ODOT spokeswoman Michelle May.

The reason for Franklin County’s unenviable litter ranking is unclear, but most point to its position as a central crossroads for highway traffic. Others mention trucks traveling to and from the Franklin County Landfill along I-71 south of Grove City.

Those concerns prompted the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio, which operates the landfill, to form its own litter-collection crew last year. With an annual budget of $200,000, the five-member crew works along I-71 between Greenlawn Avenue and Rt. 62 and along I-270 between Georgesville Road and Rt. 33.

"There was a perception that the landfill is the problem, but there has been no study to say where the trash is coming from," said J.D. Compston, environmental-programs manager for the authority.

He said some motorists are ignorant of litter laws, including the fact that cigarette butts are litter, and others are merely thoughtless.

"Their attitude is, ‘Someone will take care of this.’ "

One way Franklin County officials are dealing with the problem is the Nail-A-Dumper line. Anyone who sees littering or illegal dumping can call 614-871-5322 to provide a license plate number and a description of the vehicle. The owner of the vehicle will receive a warning letter from the Franklin County sheriff’s office.

Deputy Sheriff Patrick Smith of the environmental-crimes unit said the public seems to be getting more involved. The county mailed 97 warning letters in the first quarter of this year, compared with 22 during the same period last year.

"I think people are genuinely upset about the problem," he said.

Those interested in volunteering to pick up litter can join adopt-a-roadway or adopt-an-area programs offered by Keep Columbus Clean, Keep Franklin County Clean, ODOT or the Solid Waste Authority.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has two groups of community-service inmates working in central Ohio, but neither is on litter duty now.

Concerns about being sued if a jail inmate got hurt have prevented Sheriff Jim Karnes from using them to clean up litter. The state legislature is looking for a way to overcome the liability issue.

Until the law changes, most of the work will fall to public employees such as Creighton Owens of the authority’s litter crew.

"It’s a shame the way people disrespect the place where they live," he said last week while collecting litter on I-71 along the Franklinton floodwall. "If they treated this like their own yard, we’d be better off."

jfutty@dispatch.com