Butler County Commissioners Cracking Down on Littering Problem

A few discarded styrofoam cups litter a rural road in Butler County.

There aren’t many roads you can travel on that are completely trash free. Most will have a paper cup or two, a few plastic bags, and a lot of empty food containers. The roads in Butler County are no exception, but county commissioners think trashy highways send the wrong message to travelers.

“We have people that drive through, get off the Interstate, may take a rural route,” says County Commissioner Joey Peavy.” It’s a direct reflection on our county. We want it beautiful for people, we want it to look nice, we want it to be presentable.”

Peavy says tax return season is when counties often see the worst issues with littering. People are thinking, “in with the new, and out ‘on the street’ with the old.”

“It’s great to get an income tax return, but when you get it and you replace your living room suite, don’t take your old one and set it out by the county right-a-way or your old TV. That’s what we’re seeing a lot of this year,” says Peavy.

While littering is illegal in the state of Alabama and those who litter can face fines of up to $500, it’s a hard crime to police. Unless law enforcement actually sees a person litter or a witness wants to press charges, there’s not much that can be done. Peavy says it’s up to Butler County residents to keep their roads clean.

He’s hoping people will participate in “Don’t Drop It on Alabama Week,” a week the Butler County Commission designated to tackle litter. Residents are asked to just walk in a neighborhood or along a county road and pick up whatever trash they might find.

Trash bags are provided completely free of charge to volunteers. People simply need to let commissioners know they want to help, pick up the trash bags at the county commissioners’ office, and let the Butler County Sheriff’ Office know where they will be picking up trash.

Volunteers don’t have to worry about disposing of those trash bags either. They can leave bags tied up on the side of the road and workers will come by later to pick up the bags.

Peavy says you’ll get a great day of exercise, and the bonus of knowing you made your community cleaner.

“A lot of things that we can do in our county as officials, if we had a little help from citizens it would help everything,” he adds. “It would make it a lot easier and really make the community look a lot better if we all pitched in and did a little bit.”