UF survey shows litter declining along Florida roadsides

August 30, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With a rapidly growing population and visits from 41 million tourists annually, Florida might be expected to have a growing litter problem.

But a newly completed statewide study on litter has come to the opposite conclusion. The amount of visible litter on the state’s roadsides has plummeted more than 30 percent since 1997, the last time the survey was done, according to the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Florida.

“This is pretty exciting news,” said John Schert, director of the center at the UF College of Engineering. “It appears that the state’s anti-litter efforts are having a significant impact.”

The study is the fifth since 1994, when the Florida Legislature began funding the studies as part of a larger effort to cut the state’s litter problem in half.

It found that the amount of roadside beverage containers, fast-food wrappers, newspapers and other so-called “large litter” – anything 4 square inches or larger – had dropped almost 34 percent since 1997. When compared with data collected in 1995, the first year the survey had comparable results, the decline shrank to 15 percent. The survey found that cigarette butts, foam “peanuts,” bottle caps and other “small litter” has declined 12 percent since 1997. When compared with the 1995 data, however, small litter is up 31 percent.

Schert attributed the decline in large litter – typically, it’s the litter that is visible from a passing car — to a state Department of Environmental Protection grant program that helps pay for roadside cleanups. The program channels small grants to local Keep Florida Beautiful groups, which coordinate volunteer clean-ups and promote an anti-littering message.

He also said a decision to change the way most roadside mowing is done has probably also had a significant impact. Over the last several years mowing crews and private contractors are required to clean litter off roadsides before they mow, which helps prevent mowers machines from “mulching” litter and spreading it around, he said.

“You’ll often see crews on four-wheelers snaking all over the roadside, cleaning up the litter before they mow,” he said. “I have a hunch that the roadside cleaning that now takes place before the grass is mowed is a pretty important factor here.”

Schert said the litter study, which covers all of Florida’s 67 counties, is the most comprehensive in the nation.

Technicians use a computer program to randomly select 10 roadways in each county. Although some roadsides are in cities, highly urban areas in downtowns are often rejected, because roadsides may not exist or are too narrow to compare to other roadsides. Other exclusions include roadsides that are under construction or deemed unsafe for the survey.

The technicians measure out a 200-foot swath on one side of each roadway. Next, they walk the swath with a tape recorder, carefully identifying and recording all the large litter they see. The procedure is followed on a smaller scale for small litter, with technicians counting all small litter in three 1-foot-by-5-foot areas in each swath. The researchers divide the litter into 72 large litter categories and 14 small litter categories.

The January-April process involves nine specially trained technicians. Overall, the survey covered 670 sites and more than 25 miles of roadway statewide.

Aside from the overall decline in large litter, the study revealed some interesting trends:

• The most common type of large litter found on high speed highways is tire debris. Schert attributed this to tires on some large trucks shredding while they are being driven. The most common type of small litter is cigarette butts. The same was true for all the other surveys conducted in previous years.
• Although beer and soda cans are both prevalent, beer cans are consistently more common. Schert said technicians often find groups of beer cans and beer can packaging in a single location, while soda cans tend to be spread around more evenly. He said he thinks people who drive while drinking beer often pull off the road to clean out their car of several beer cans at once to avoid being cited under the open container law, whereas they are more likely to hang on to soda cans until they get to a trash can or recycling bin.

Schert said litter is an especially important issue in a state such as Florida, which relies on tourism for much of its revenue. The survey is a tool for policy-makers to understand where the problems are and how to combat them, he said. The entire litter report can be downloaded from the center’s Web site, www.floridacenter.org