“Litter is everyone’s problem,” according to the Mississippi Department of Transportation website. Drive down any road in Winston County, and you’re likely to see paper wrappers, to-go bags, cups, and bottles in the ditches and right-of-ways.
MDOT says that it costs a whopping $3 million to clean up the highways of the Magnolia State. In Winston County, that includes highways such as 15, 25, and 14. Statistics show that the rural roads of Mississippi have a 30 percent higher rate of litter than similar roads in other states.
Residents of Winston County would agree. One concerned citizen described the litter problem as “overrun.” Plus, litter causes homeowners to carry out extra work just to keep their yards clean. MDOT says that litter causes decreased property value as well as health risks. Litter can harm wildlife, and excessive litter can cost an area in decreased tourism and commerce.
Certainly, the state of Mississippi has worked to combat the problem of litter across the state. In 2003, the state’s First Lady, Pat Fordice, would lend her time to the Keep Mississippi Beautiful campaign against littering. In 2018, Mississippi State legend and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott would become the face of the campaign.
Yet, litter seems to be an ever-growing problem. However, there are those in Winston County who are ready to fight back.
Litterless Louisville is a volunteer anti-litter campaign that works to clean up within the city limits of town. It began with a city proclamation in 2019, and it is still ongoing. Every fifth Saturday, volunteers meet at First Baptist Church, where they receive gloves, garbage bags, and trash pickers. They are assigned streets or roads on which to work. The city van and trailer then collect the filled bags and take them to the landfill.
While this is a great way to combat litter in the city, the county also suffers from the unsightly problem of trash along roadways – and sometimes in the yards of residents. In the county, there is no volunteer program like Litterless Louisville set up to regularly pick up trash. In Noxapater, Mayor Sammy Carter pointed to his city employees, who come in early and patrol through the city limits in order to find litter and clean up the streets. However, Carter said that the cost of keeping the streets litter-free is very expensive, “and goes right back on the taxpayer.”
There are volunteers who help to keep the city streets of Noxapater litter-free. The Noxapater Community Chamber Alliance has also gathered volunteers to help clean up (again, within the city limits.)
Litter in Winston County is an ever-growing problem, but there are solutions in the volunteer organizations that regularly pick up litter. Keep Mississippi Beautiful is an ongoing program, as is the Adopt-a-Highway program. Volunteer groups must commit to picking up along a one- or two-mile stretch of road at least four times per year. Interested individuals or groups may contact the MDOT District Litter Prevention Coordinator via the litter.mdot.ms.gov/contact/ page.
