'Curious' Why I-93 Is Covered In Trash

WBZ

If you drive I-93, you know it's not just the traffic that makes some drivers fuming mad.

Take a look on the side of the road and you'll see what drivers are leaving behind -- cups, tires, shovels... lots of garbage.

It seems worse than years past. "I have been here 25 years. It's the worse I've ever seen," says one driver.

"I think people throw stuff out windows… they have no personal responsibility," says another driver.

Viewers of WBZ were curious, so we went to the top -- the Commissioner of Mass Highway -- to find answers.

"Why is 93 so littered?" asked WBZ's Kate Merrill.

Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky says, "Unfortunately, people throw trash out their windows or truck loads are going up unsecured. We use dozens of inmate crews, Sponsor a Highway, Adopt a Highway and our own personnel once every three days."

Paiewonsky says it isn't a budget issue, they spend a million a year on trash cleanup.

Combine that with civilian help from Adopt a Highway and inmate cleanups, they have lots of help. But it keeps pilling up.

"Even with dozens of crews going every few days picking up the litter, the discouraging thing is, they go out there three days later they find the same stretch covered with litter all over again," says the commissioner.

The real problem is the long, snowy winter. The trash has had months to collect and they are trying to catch up.

But 93 is a dangerous road, with very little room to stand on the side.

Despite the hurdles, the fight to keep the roadways clean continues.

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