Your View 6/18: Help fight litter

As part of Missouri's anti-litter campaign, No More Trash, MoDOT's Southeast District asked area Adopt-A-Highway groups to participate in our month-long litter pick-up campaign during May. The groups overwhelmingly responded Forty-six volunteer groups spent over 500 total hours picking up roughly eight tons of soda cans, tires, food wrappers and other trash throughout Southeast Missouri.

Not only did these groups donate their time to do an outstanding job in making Missouri a cleaner and more beautiful place, but their yearly participation saves Missouri taxpayers about $1.5 million each year. MoDOT spends about $5 million annually on roadside litter cleanup. That amount of money could be used to resurface more than 200 miles of roads, replace as many as eight bridges or make many bridge repairs.

I can't stress the importance of Adopt-A-Highway groups and I cannot praise Southeast Missouri volunteers enough for the great job they did over the last few weeks. It is something from which we all benefit. I want to thank each of them for their hard work. Scott County participants included:

* Scott County Central Student Council in Sikeston; * Tri-City Willing Workers of Scott City; * Jim and Mary Ann Menz of Scott City; * Special Olympics Missouri Southeast Area Rebels from Oran and * David Mann of Benton.

How can all Missourians help? Practice litter prevention in your home, your workplace and your car today and every day.

I encourage anyone interested in finding out more about Missouri's Adopt-A-Highway program to contact us toll-free at (888) 275-6636 or www.modot.org

For more information on the No More Trash campaign, visit www.nomoretrash.org

Scott Meyer, Missouri Department of Transportation