CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Roadside littering has been an eyesore and nuisance in Montgomery County over the years and it got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. But lately, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has noticed a rising littering trend with the changing seasons, and so have concerned citizens.
“We love it here, it’s beautiful,” Kristen Morello, a two-year Clarksville resident said. “But the garbage is piling up.”
Changing season and population
Morello and her husband moved here from Los Angeles, and she said the community here is a stark contrast to where they are from.
“Whenever we visit L.A., we come back to Clarksville with a new appreciation,” Morello said. “Clarksville is beautiful, but the littering and garbage is still a problem.”
Morella told Clarksville Now that during their house hunting, the foliage covered the garbage. After their second winter in Clarksville, she noticed the same garbage and some new trash.
MCSO environmental enforcement officer Sgt. Mike Leutert said the appearance of littering changes with the seasons.
“The roadside litter comes and goes with the seasons, with weather being worse at certain times of the year, it builds up rather quickly, and then there is a period of getting out and cleaning it up,” Leutert said. “This all takes time, so it looks worse during these periods.”
The rising population also plays a factor. “The more people we have living in our communities, the more littering will happen,” he said.
The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office periodically sends out Workhouse inmates to pick up roadside trash.
Roadside litter laws
The leading cause of roadside litter is unsecured loads traveling on Tennessee roadways. 65 to 70 percent of it comes from citizens not following the Secure Load Law, according to state audits done yearly, Leutert said.
Here are the main litter laws that deputies can enforce in Montgomery County.
- Mitigated Criminal Littering: Littering in an amount less than or equal to 5 pounds, a class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $50.
- Criminal Littering: Littering in an amount between 5 to 10 pounds, a class B misdemeanor, punishable by 80 hours of community service.
- Aggravated Criminal Littering: Any weight over 10 pounds, in any amount for any commercial purpose. Potential Class A misdemeanor with a fine of $2,500 to $4,000, or both, and potential Class E felony if the person is a repeat offender, punishable by 160 hours of community service.
- Secure Load Law: Any vehicle that transports litter or material likely to fall or be blown off onto the highways is required to have it either in an enclosed space or fully covered, a Class B misdemeanor.
- Loose Material Violation: A driving infraction.
“If everyone would follow this law, we could easily see a 65% reduction in roadside litter,” Leutert said.
In the Clarksville city limits, there are additional codes enforced for garbage:
- “It shall be unlawful for any person to place or throw any garbage, trash, wastepaper, or any other refuse material in or upon any street or other public way or place within the city except in authorized garbage containers.”
- “All garbage or refuse containers either for private, commercial, industrial, institutional, governmental, public, and semipublic uses shall be so covered as not to allow garbage or refuse to spill from the container upon the ground. The cover also shall be constructed so as to prevent the pilfering of garbage or refuse by animals.”
How to help
Morello said some of the areas where she sees the highest concentration of littering are in rural farmland near corn and wheat fields.
On Dover Road going toward Bi-County Landfill, garbage and trash blown off of vehicles tends to accumulate on the side of the road, according to Leutert.
Mary Anderson at Bi-County Solid Waste Management noted that 101st Airborne Division Parkway/Highway 374 sees the highest concentration of littering. Luckily, Bi-County has staff who picks up litter on Dover Road almost daily with weather permitting.
But there are solutions.
“There are many opportunities to help with roadside litter,” Anderson says. “Individuals can start a neighborhood cleanup, Adopt-A-Highway/Street, volunteer next year for the Great American Clean Up, or simply report litterers to the Litter Hot Line.”
The litter hotline can be reached at 1-877-8LITTER.
“The Litter Hotline is a great way to report when you see people littering,” Anderson said. “All you need is the license plate number.”
When a person is reported to the hotline, the litterer does not receive a fine, instead they receive a letter that includes information about how to contain litter, and a notice that litterers can be fined up to $2,500 if they are caught by law enforcement.
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For groups, families or individuals interested in Adopt-A-Highway/Street, Anderson said they have to commit to adopt approximately 2 miles of roadway for at least one year and conduct, at minimum, four cleanups per year of their adopted roadway.
According to Nobody Trashes Tennessee, for those interested in adopting a highway, they will need to designate a Group Coordinator so TDOT can keep your group updated regularly. Next, complete an application form and register your group.
Applicants must work with a district coordinator to assign their adopted route, follow the safety guidelines for litter pickups and report their activity so TDOT can pick up the trash collected by the group. To learn more, go to the Adopt-a-Highway website.
During the 2024 Great American Clean Up, volunteers were assigned to different locations to pick up garbage, and data from those cleanups were recorded. Over 200 volunteers showed up to help and collected almost 130 bags of trash. The volunteers reported several unusual items during the cleanup, such as a copying machine, crime scene tape, and a large pan of beans.
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