Every year, motorists toss the equivalent of mountains of trash into roadside ditches in Minnesota. And every year, volunteers like Adrienne Buboltz help pick it up.
Buboltz and members of the Detroit Lakes Noon Rotary Club have been cleaning up a segment of Hwy. 10 outside the northwestern Minnesota city for the past three decades through the state Department of Transportation's Adopt a Highway program, which marks its 30th anniversary this year.
"I'm kind of fussy how things look around Detroit Lakes," said Buboltz, who co-chairs the club's cleanup efforts. "This is a tourist area and we want it to look nice."
Littering is a misdemeanor in Minnesota punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, or 90 days in jail, or both. But that doesn't stop drivers from tossing everything from empty cigarette packs to pop bottles and even toilet seats, luggage and clothing into the weeds and reeds along a road. Sometimes they inadvertently lose valuables there, such as wallets and cellphones.
The most disgusting items jettisoned are dirty diapers. The most infuriating items are the ones drivers toss out the window in front of teams cleaning up along the road, Buboltz said.
"Some have no respect for others," she said. "Some people take pride, others don't."
Add it all up, and volunteers representing businesses, community organizations, churches and school groups from across the state spent more than 272,000 hours last year collecting rubbish and filling 40,000 yellow trash bags, said Ann McLellan, MnDOT's Adopt a Highway state coordinator. That was 4,000 more bags of trash than were collected in 2018.
MnDOT launched the Adopt a Highway in 1990 after Gov. Rudy Perpich visited Texas to speak with Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, about that state's anti-litter campaign called, "Don't Mess with Texas." By last year, Minnesota had 3,800 groups picking up trash along 4,200 miles of metro and rural highways. The Detroit Lakes Rotary is one of 475 groups that have been active since the program's inception.
"People enjoy being out cleaning up our environment and helping out the state," McLellan said.
It's a huge help. The state realizes a benefit of about $7 million a year by not having to pay maintenance workers to do the job. That gives them more time to do everything from fixing broken guardrails to mowing lawns, McLellan said.
Groups register with MnDOT and may choose or have assigned a 2-mile segment of road. Many pick a road that has a personal connection, such as a highway they travel frequently or the site of a fatal crash, said Barbara Nelson, who coordinates the trash pickup program in northeastern Minnesota. Because of that, she said, "there is great pride the groups take in keeping their sections clean."
Groups are required to pick up litter at least twice a year. MnDOT provides trash bags and the required safety vests and training, learning how to deal with oncoming traffic, staying away from the edge of the road and avoiding areas such as ravines, overpasses and retaining walls.
This year MnDOT issued additional guidelines due to COVID-19: Groups were restricted to no more than 10 people, required to stay at least 6 feet from other members and encouraged to bring their own trash collecting tools.
The Lakers 4-H Club adopted part of Hwy. 91 in Murray County in southwestern Minnesota. Parent volunteer Anita Gaul said picking up trash makes a big impact, takes little time and is a positive way to give back to the community.
"I feel like I'm accomplishing something," said Gaul's son Roman, 10, a club member.
This week MnDOT began sending thank you cards to the Gauls and the thousands of other volunteers helping to keep highways clean.
Roman had his own message to send: "Don't litter. If you had a little bit of sense, you would throw trash in the garbage."
Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768
