Over 18 million pounds of litter is thrown across WA yearly, the state is asking for help

About 26% of Washingtonians say they chuck trash onto beaches, roadsides, lakefronts and in forests rather than wait to find a trash can or keep a trash bag in their vehicle. The good news is, most of them say they’d stop littering if someone they know asked them to.

That’s according to a new anti-littering campaign launched by the Washington state Department of Ecology this week.

The majority of Washington state’s 7.7 million residents, or nearly three-quarters, say they don’t litter, though. The remaining 26% say they are just waiting for a family member, friend or car passenger to ask them to stop.

The Ecology campaign will target behaviors that cause littering, according to a Sept. 12 press release. The effort is largely based on the department’s research which found that people identified the top reason they litter as not having a car trash bag in their vehicle.

All told, about 24,000 pieces of litter are found per mile on Washington’s urban interstate highways per year. Plastic food wrappers, cigarette butts and snack bags are the most common items.

That’s 18 million pounds of litter that accumulates across Washington state’s roads, parks, waterways and recreation areas. The cost annually to the state to clean it all up is a staggering $9 million, according to the department of Ecology.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, litter along Washington roads and other areas raised many complaints, as the state struggled to clean up without their usual clean-up programs running.

“Litter is a big problem with simple solutions… It’s critical for us to stop litter at its source. We need everyone to do their part,” Amber Smith, a statewide litter prevention coordinator at Ecology, stated in the Sept. 12 press release.

Litter can also be extremely harmful and “serve as a breeding ground for bacteria and can spread disease through direct or indirect contact with humans,” according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Litter can also be harmful to animals as it can be easily mistaken as food. Many types of litter also leach dangerous chemicals into the environment.

The Ecology campaign, which they’ve dubbed “Simple As That,” encourages easy, everyday changes to limit litter:

▪ Have a bag or container in your car for collecting trash. You can recycle a plastic or paper bag from home, or find a small trash containers made for vehicles at stores such as Walmart, Target, Home Depot or Dollar Tree.

▪ Hold on to trash in your car until you reach a trash can. Keeping your trash off the roads isn’t only good for the environment, but it can save lives. According to Ecology, roadside litter causes hundreds of car crashes every year.

You can also get a free reusable litter bag for your car from all Fred Meyer Washington stores and enter for a chance to win a $100 Fred Meyer gift card by taking a Department of Ecology survey at the customer service counter.

For those interested in volunteering to help clean Washington’s roads, the Adopt-a-Highway program allows volunteers or businesses to “adopt” a section of state highway to clean for a two-year period. Other litter clean-up programs can be found through the department of Ecology.