ODOT spending $10 million to collect trash on roadsides

CLEVELAND (WJW) – No matter how sunny your daily commute, things can get ugly if you look down.

Trash on roadsides is becoming a multi-million dollar problem — one ODOT reports it spends $10 million per year to clean up.

“Fast food wrapper, drinks, cups… you name it, we’ve found it,” said ODOT press secretary Matt Bruning.

It’s a problem volunteers like Linda Krasienko can help solve.

“I even grab it with my hands,” said Krasienko. “I just I don’t know if it’s an obsession in a way when I see trash around.”

Krasienko, part of the Westshore Lions Club, picks up litter wherever she finds it and says the highways need help too.

“I see how people just throw things out of their windows when they’re at an exit of a freeway,” said Krasienko.

ODOT crews picked up 89,000 bags of trash so far this year. The total includes the more than 24,000 bags collected in partnership with 11 correctional institutions.

“It’s ugly, honestly. It’s embarrassing,” said Bruning. “We have a beautiful state. I hate the fact that for some people, the first thing they’ll see is these littered roadsides. These are 100% preventable issues out there on the roadway and the sad reality is because people aren’t taking very simple steps, it’s costing you and I a lot of money.”

He encourages people to volunteer to Adopt-A-Highway to help keep their stretch of the interstate clean. Since January, the volunteer groups collected nearly 200 bags of trash.

“I want to honor our Earth and I think we need to pay more attention to our Earth,” said Krasienko.

It’s a cause that Krasienko hopes catches on.

“You can model for other people what to do so you end up not being one person. You end up being an attraction for other people to do positive things,” she said.

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