Curious About Trash Along Massachusetts Highways
BOSTON (CBS) - Now that most of the snow has melted, we're seeing green grass and lots of trash, especially along our highways.
Vito in Centerville Declared his Curiosity, writing:
"I just drove back from Florida. As I crossed into Massachusetts, I was stunned to see the trash on our highways! It was an eye opener!"
It turns out our trash troubles are bigger and costlier this year.
WBZ-TV's David Wade reports.
Welcome to Trash-achusetts, where this spring, you, the taxpayer, will feel the sting of the litter bug.
Need a torn up couch? How about a toilet? The trail of trash we found along our highways is gross and expensive.
The acting highway commissioner said that last year, the state spent about $750,000 on trash pick-up. This year, it will be more than $900,000.
"We would much rather be using that money on resurfacing roads, repairing bridges and other parts of the system," said Frank DePoala of MassDOT.
The state said this year the trash got buried under all that snow we had. They couldn't pick it up for months, and once they did start the spring cleaning, they noticed for whatever reason, there was more of it this year. Apparently, we've been slobs.
The past few weeks, highway crews, inmates and volunteers, through the adopt-a-highway program have been bagging it up and throwing it away.
Things will look better in a few weeks.
The clean-up money is the same taxpayer money used for potholes, roads and bridges. Some of those are trashed in a different way.
