Our feature OKI Wanna Know collects answers for you when you don't know where to find them. This week, our question is about the stuff that collects on the shoulders and in the medians, with WVXU's Bill Rinehart.
Jane Specter of Butler County says she travels around this country but finds Cincinnati area highways are "some of the most litter filled I have ever seen." She says it's embarrassing and appalling. Why is this?
"It can hit the ground in one of three ways: It can be thrown. It can be blown. It can be dumped."
Jonathan Adee is the executive director of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful.
"To the extent that it is thrown, that is a behavioral issue that we want to make sure that we are changing the ratio who care about the Queen City's environment," he says. "To the extent that litter is blown, we want to provide resources to people in order to keep their surroundings clean. And to the extent that litter is dumped, we want to provide disincentives for people behaving unlawfully, and incentives to help people do the right thing."
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is a chapter of the national Keep America Beautiful campaign that was started in 1953, as a way to convince people to stop dumping their trash just anywhere.
That effort produced what's been called the most successful PSA ever, featuring an actor dressed as a Native American, shedding a tear at the litter-filled landscape.
But "successful" is still relative. Adee says Keep American Beautiful estimates there are 152 pieces of trash for every person in the United States.
"For Cincinnati's population that adds to about 4.6 million or so."
Adee says Keep Cincinnati Beautiful has the Adopt-a-Spot program, which is just what it sounds like: people sign up to keep one particular area in the city clean.
But outside of a city, village, or other incorporated area, the Ohio Department of Transportation is responsible for cleaning up garbage alongside state roads and highways.
ODOT District 8 spokeswoman Kathleen Fuller says there are a number of different approaches and programs, like Adopt-a-Highway, where about 800 clubs, companies and sometimes families take care of about 2,300 miles of Ohio highways, two miles at a time.
"The groups are asked to pick up for two years, and pick up four times a year," she explains. "The participants, of course, are volunteers. They are not paid to pick up litter. We of course provide safety training. We will provide the trash bags. We provide safety vests. And there will also be signs installed for the group."
Fuller says volunteers are typically given stretches that are considered pretty safe. For more dangerous areas, ODOT crews and contractors pick up the garbage.
She says ODOT also gets help from the Center for Employment Opportunities, which hires people with recent criminal backgrounds, and from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections.
"Here in Warren County I know that they typically are out a few times a year, along I-75, especially in the Warren-Butler county areas," she says. "We leave it to them to let us know when they're available."
Some counties also use inmates. The Butler County Sheriff's Office calls it PRIDE: Providing Responsibility for Inmates through Duties for the Environment. One officer supervises two inmates as they remove trash from township and county roads.
PRIDE is funded by state and federal grants, and money from recycled aluminum cans.
They picked up a lot of cans last year. The Sheriff's Office says the inmates collected more than 2,000 bags of garbage from county and state highways in Butler County.
Here are some totals from across Ohio in 2024:
- Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections: more than 100,000 bags
- Center for Employment Opportunities: more than 86,000
- Contractor: more than 120,000
- ODOT crews: more than 300,000
- Adopt-a-Mile volunteers: about 2,000
Fuller says those volunteers are proud of what they do. And that pride might help in the long run.
"Think about it: Do you want to pick up anybody else's trash? I always say 'How do you feel about picking up somebody else's garbage? What if this was your front yard?' " she says. "You want people to be mindful and respectful of it. And I think when you see volunteers taking this initiative, that says a lot."
Adee agrees. He says if people see a litter-filled neighborhood, they are more likely to drop their trash. But when they see clean streets, they're less likely to litter.
"That's what we're trying to do ... building community so that the people who do care aren't just ships passing in the night thinking nobody else cares, 'I'm out here doing this on my own,' but instead realizing that there is a community dedicated to making Cincinnati as clean as it possibly can be."
Fuller says ODOT spends about $10 million a year picking up trash. She says that's $10 million that could go to something else, like fixing potholes.
