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MassHighway today launched its annual roadway trash removal program. MassHighway workers, local business groups, volunteers and crews of prisoners have begun collecting trash that has accumulated along major highways.
MassHighway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky joined clean up crews in Chicopee at the Route 33 rotaries.
Last year crews picked up 145,700 bags or 582.8 tons of trash from Massachusetts roadways. The volunteer litter cleanup campaign saves taxpayers a portion of the trash removal expense.
MassHighway’s Adopt-A-Highway public service program focuses on major routes such as interstate roadways, with volunteer cleanups along individually-sponsored two-mile stretches of highway. Learn more about the program.
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Interesting ……I still see alot of trash along the highway and I feel this program is not very good in this state and needs hugh improvements. Just drive to Rhode Island and you can see the difference….I have called the state alot on this subject…..I would like an accountability of the budget and the times they picked up 128 North in the past year because I guarantee you it was pathetic. Bring back littering fines and enforce them and this will increase your budget. The majority of the plastic trash are beverage plastic bottles…..charge money for them….outlaw styrofoam…..do not mow the plastic with the grass…..where do you dispose of the grass contaminated with plastic clippings? HHHM…..
I would like to correct a grammatical error in my last post which should read….The majority of plastic trash is beverage plastic bottles. However since I last posted this comment my neighbor has noticed trash removal companies with uncovered containers leaving Cape Ann heading south on Rte 128. Also today we noticed a toilet seat in the trees right after the exit to rte 133 again south bound on 128! The trash at this point is horrific to say the least.
I am in full support of keeping the highways and byways clean. I would like to pressure the state to implement stronger recyling laws and regulations that might help result in source reduction from the very start. If we create less trash…less will wind up on the highways. I would like to see mandatory pay as you throw programs state wind. Need to start at the source of the trash. I would also like to see a surcharge on plastis bags!
Today a Grey Saturn with a Red Sox vanity plate RS 918 threw out 2 water bottles from the drivers side out an open window on the passengers side in the far right driving lane. The car was heading south on route 24. The bottles were flung out the passenger side window north of exit 20 around 5:30PM. We honked the horn when the first bottle was flung but he sent a second one flying anyway. Are there not laws and a way to obtain compensation for clean up costs since littering is a major problem and there seems as if there is no monitoring of the offenders? The state needs money yet does not seem to present a campaign against littering with a substantial fine whether it be money or cleaning up a mile or so of roadway.A campaign against littering would either decrease clean up costs or generate revenue with fines.
I’m not sure what happened to picking up the highway. It seems non-existant. It is not just paper and cups, it is bumpers and things that fall off of pickup trucks. It is embarrasing that we can not clean up the highways. All other surrounding states do not have this problem. ————————————————————————- Thanks for the comment. MassDOT takes state roadway litter seriously, and does cleanup work as conditions allow. Roadside cleanup in 2012 as each year will be focused in particular in the period just after the typical winter snow plow season when litter accumulates and may be hidden by weather-related conditions.
I cannot agree more with Christine, all of our neighboring states do a much better job cleaning up their highway landscape. Maine and NH both had crews picking up trash even with traces of snow still on the ground. If you want to attract new business and residents to Massachusetts we must clean up and show we care. Impose fines and encourage retailers to do away with plastic and styrofoam.
On 128 north of Beverly the trash is rarely picked up, the road surface is pathetic and the lines remain unpainted.
Take a ride down route one and you see the same tire retreads and debries day after day. Put maintenance and trash removal out to private bid.
The plastic waste that fills the waterways adjacent to the state highways is a health hazard that should be addressed
Driving up and down 495 every day from Norton to Framingham. I am very disgusted with the amount of trash that I am seeing. Now that the snow is gone. PLEASE get some prison personal out there and pick up this trash!!! PLEASE. thank you.
Welcome to the Commonwealth of Trashachusetts!
As you drive along the major routes the amount of plastic bags, cups, broken bottles, blown out tires, shattered front end pieces, fast food crap and other degradable and non-degradable items just lying along the highways. How about the TV’s, microwaves and 5 gallon buckets of… who-knows-what discarded in somebody else’s neighborhood? I thought maybe this is just a result of a long winter, but as the weather gets better, I see no highway crew out there cleaning it up, I see no prisoner work detail cleaning it up, all I see is more trash piling up.
Doesn’t anyone care anymore? I can’t be the only one, I have already cleaned about 15lbs of trash from an area near my home but that is barely a scratch on the surface.
I can tell you as someone who works along the roadways all over New England, that Massachusetts is the worst of all and the problem seems to be getting much worse. Most of the trash gets grown over or mowed in the summer so it seems to be cleaner – but if you look into the layers of soil (as I have) you will find it is deep with trash, covered by growth – and the cycle continues. This trash often breaks down somewhat into smaller pieces and ends up in the waterways along the highway, and there are many. Then the decaying batteries, plastic and other toxic materials end up in our drinking water.
I think we need a public awareness program, environmental police actively looking for offenders, higher fines, more community service clean-up programs and also a state program that allows people to cheaply dispose of construction by products. All this being said, the MA DOT has been failing us as much of the problem is with them not actively cleaning the roadsides or worse, leaving their trash behind also. I can find on my 30 minute ride up route 3 to 128 countless old orange cones, signs, pieces of guardrail, etc.
Massachusetts has the trashiest roads in the US. It's embarrassing for a states that tries to promote itself as progressive. It reminds me of Appalachia back in the 60's.
I agree with the general tone of the comments. I use the Bellingham exit off 495 (exit 18) every day and the trash is absolutely horrible. The condition of the exit is representative of the larger problem on the area roadways, and it is an embarrassing black mark on what otherwise is a great area. The trash problem appears to be treated as an afterthought, perhaps because of limited resources. It is a tremendous problem but let's start with the basic premise that littering is unacceptable, punishable by stiff fines – and that should include any trash truck, construction vehicle, pickup truck or van that doesn't properly secure its trash. Please put resources on the problem through legislation, enforcement, cleanup, and maintenance so that we can all have pride in our roadways.
I live in the Fitchburg-Leominster area and the trash at the route 2 and 1190 junction is appalling, trash in the median on route 2 as well. Who do I call about this?
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We will forward this information. You may call or submit an e-mail to MassDOT here, thank you: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/ContactUs.aspx
I've lived in Lexington, MA for three years. I've never seen any trash removed from Exit 30, to Route 2A East. I'm so disgusted that I actually pulled off the ramp, grabbed a bag, and within 3 minutes, I had it filled to the brim with trash that has almost fossilized. I plan to continue to do it until it's gone. Trash begets trash.
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Thank you for the report, forwarded to district Highway. Maintenance crews perform trash pickup as available during non-winter months.