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Pa. targets litter in new campaign

  • Scott LaMar
Trash and litter along highway 520 with Bellevue, Washington, USA in the background.

Trash and litter along highway 520 with Bellevue, Washington, USA in the background.

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“PA Fights Dirty: Every Litter Bit Matters.” is the name of an anti-littering campaign launched by the state last week.

A 2019 Pennsylvania Litter Research Study found Pennsylvania has more than 500 million pieces of litter on its roadways. More than 85 percent of these pieces are less than four inches in size.

“Every Litter Bit Matters” encourages Pennsylvanians to properly dispose of even their smallest pieces of trash.

Joining us on Thursday’s Smart Talk, Natasha Fackler, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator, spoke about what the campaign is designed to do,”the campaign really is aimed at raising awareness, self-reflection, maybe really to change behaviors of those littering on our roadways. I think a lot of times people don’t understand maybe that they are littering or don’t understand that their little piece of litter really does add up to a lot of litter on our roadways. So the campaign’s really focusing on changing behavior.”

Fackler added that sometimes people don’t even realize they’re littering,” They put their soda can or soda drink on top of a trash bin that’s already full. They don’t realize that that’s going to blow away and then become litter on the roadway or in a parking lot. A lot of times we’ll go to an event and just leave our trash behind.”

Will Penndot pick up trash and litter? “We spend about $14 million a year on litter pick up. We also highly, really rely on volunteer pick up groups. We will continue to do our efforts. We are partnering with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful on a young ambassador program to really start engaging with our high school students across the state so that they can be civic leaders and really champion and advocate for clean and beautiful communities across the state.”

 

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