AIKEN, SC – South Carolina’s roads now look difficult. And while garbage is a problem across the state, residents of the Aiken area are working to resolve the problem.
Garbage has always been a problem, but why do things look so worse today?
South Carolina Department of Transportation officials say people are eating out more and then throwing out bags and boxes.
“To eat out, there are only more disposable dishes,” said Brittany Harriot, of the agency. “Even masks and gloves, we are discovering.”
In addition, the Corrections Department cleaning teams that you would normally see taking care of our roads and highways have not left because of the safety precautions of COVID-19.
“We are not going to put them in danger,” said director Bryan Stirling. “We are not going to put our policeman, who would be in the van with them, in danger … there are 220 inmates who should be cleaning there, but we stopped everything when COVID started.”
So, with more garbage being thrown and fewer teams picking it up, what is the solution?
“It’s scary at the moment,” said Sarah Lyles of Palmetto Pride. “It is a difficult task.”
Lyles said that garbage collection is something that has to happen, “or we’re going to pay for it one way or the other.”
When it comes to garbage laws in South Carolina, Palmetto’s Pride leaders say they are really strong. They say more enforcement is needed.
“We need more written tickets,” said Lyles. “We have good policemen, we just don’t have enough. We have about 100 for the state, and that is not enough ”.
Stacie Simpkins, owner of Aiken’s farm, agrees.
She says the trash is so bad that she has to clean it out of her fence before she can cut it.
She and Marianne Yost founded a non-profit organization dedicated to solving the problem in the Aiken area. They formed a Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/449705456461802) and in a day or two it had hundreds of members.
“You look at the floor and it’s covered in trash,” said Simpkins. “It is really a statewide problem.”
She said she moved to the area in 2014, “and is getting progressively worse.”
She said authorities had pledged to place signs to warn against trash.
In addition to enforcing anti-garbage laws, it’s about changing the culture so people don’t throw garbage, she says.
“It starts at home,” she said.
“Children learn from their parents.”
That is why one of the focuses is the group, the schools. She hopes that if the children see their parents throwing trash, they will talk.
Another idea is to run a competition between schools to see which children can create the best design for a sign.
“At the end of the day, this needs to be resolved,” she said.
As volunteers and local / state leaders try to find ways to clean things up, the easiest way for all of us to improve roads is to make sure they don’t get messy in the first place.
“Wherever you go, they’ll probably have a trash can,” said Lyles. “There is simply no reason for trash.”
From the WIS and WARDW / WAGT reports