ROCKINGHAM — More than 500 bags of trash were picked up along Richmond County roadways by county and state workers in November, County Manager Bryan Land told commissioners Tuesday night.
According to the solid waste report, a total of 5.4 tons of garbage was collected.
Solid Waste Director Allen Hodges and his staff picked up 261 bags of trash from 25 roads. The three most littered areas were Airport Road (21 bags), Sandhills Road (26 bags) and Wiregrass Road (22 bags).
The N.C. Department of Transportation also picked up 323 bags of refuse along six roads. Ninety-two of those bags contained trash from the side of U.S. 220, 48 bags each from both U.S. 74 Business and U.S. 1 North, 67 bags from U.S. 1 South, 40 bags from N.C. 381, and 28 bags from Galestown Road.
State and county workers also cleaned up a total of 21 tires.
The report shows Hodges also investigated three reported illegal dumpsites on Sunday School Road, Seaboard Road and in Cordova.
The latter was cleaned up by the county and the other two are pending cleanup by county and state workers.
There were also three garbage burning investigations, and Hodges issued one warning notice and two citations.
“We are witnessing minimal improvement in the amount of trash on our roadways,” Land said Wednesday. “It’s a daily battle we fight.”
The collection numbers do show an improvement from September, when 8.8 tons of garbage were collected, which was up from 5.5 tons in August.
The report for October was not available before the close of business Wednesday.
Land told the RO in a January email that while illegal dumping is an issue, “roadside littering continues to be our most noticeable and continuous problem.”
About a year ago, county workers removed three sofas, 10 tires and almost two tons of trash from the mile-long Watkins Loop Road.
Several individuals, businesses and local governments have made efforts in recent years to try and clean up along the roads and waterways. There are 27 Adopt-A-Highway groups in the county.
