Story originally published in The Sylva Herald, March 17 edition
From the vehicle to the roadside to the ditch to the creek to the river to the Gulf of Mexico. Such is the journey of northern Jackson County litter unless someone steps in to break the cycle.
Jackson County’s Keep Our Mountains Clean and Green Litter Task Force hopes to do just that when they start recruiting volunteers for the semi-annual litter pick-up April 16-30.
Last year’s spring clean-up raked in an excess of 2,500 pounds of litter, said Kim Shuler, recycle and reduction coordinator for the Jackson County Department of Solid Waste.
The Solid Waste Department will provide volunteers with clean-up supplies like reflective vests, protective gloves, trash tongs and trash bags. There are a limited amount of “litter pick-up ahead” signs for those volunteering with larger groups, County Commissioner Gayle Woody said.
“Jackson County is such a beautiful place, and all the effort we put forth to make it clean is worth it,” Woody said.
The county’s roadsides, like U.S. 23/74, are becoming crowded with trash, recycled goods, rugs, large objects and the occasional toilet that smudge the county’s natural beauty, she said.
There will be no COVID-19 protocols for volunteers, but Woody urges volunteers to stay safe during pick-up.
“Unfortunately, just about every side road you go on and on the four lanes, you see litter,” said Norma Clayton, one of the organizers of the event. “Granted some of it blows out the back of a pickup truck. It’s unintentional, but it’s still litter. And then you have people who just throw out.”
Her husband, Mike Clayton, has a large concern about the litter issues in Jackson County, he said. He chose to take action and stop the cycle a few years ago. Clayton came up with the idea to have a Cleaning Up the Mountains event on Saturdays before the Greening Up the Mountains festival.
Since then, the couple has recruited volunteers county-wide to help clean up trash. The trash ranges from grocery items like a five-pound bag of potatoes to liquor bottles, Norma Clayton said.
There were a total of 92 volunteers and 11 groups picking up trash around the county during last year’s spring cleanup, Shuler said.
Information needed for registration includes group leader name, contact information, the number of people in the group and the name of the road where the trash will be picked up.
Volunteers should choose only secondary roads for litter pick up; the main highways of 23/74, 107 and 441 are not to be chosen due to high traffic volumes.
There are unsung task force members in the community that make picking up litter a routine action. Two of those members are a couple in the Canada community who pick up trash once a week. A larger team seen in action is the Tuckaseigee Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
In an email, Shuler said these bi-annual clean-ups are state projects for the N.C. Department of Transportation. The maintenance department of NCDOT Division 14 on Webster Road collects the filled orange bags from the sides of the roadways during and shortly after the event. The bags are then weighed at the Jackson County Transfer Station and the weight is then sent to Raleigh.
A simple way to reduce roadside litter is to secure trash bags when going to Staff Recycling Centers, Woody said. People hauling trash to SRC’s who don’t secure their loads leads to more trash on the roads.
There are two community efforts throughout the year that tackle little pick-up, the next will be in the fall.
To pick up supplies, go to the Jackson County Transfer Station at 1172 Mineral Springs Road, Sylva.
To register a group for the litter pick-up event or ask questions call Shuler at 586-7509.
“We just appreciate everybody that helps with that and thank the people that want to participate and help clean up the county,” Jackson County Director of Solid Waste Chad Parker said.
