A contest for Missouri students that’s aimed at reducing litter on the state’s roadways is underway.
No MOre Trash! targets young people in kindergarten through high school. Students are asked to use their artistic talents and creativity to decorate a 30-gallon or larger trash can to be located in a prominent area of the school or community, such as a cafeteria, gymnasium, ball field, library, church, park, etc.). The design must include the No MOre Trash! logo.
Darin Hamelink, state maintenance director for the Missouri Department of Transportation, which holds the annual contest, said it’s important to get the anti-littering message across to people when they’re young.
"We want to target the younger folks out there so that, as they grow older, hopefully that sticks in their mind," he said, "because we know, if we don't eliminate or reduce littering at its source, we're never going to win this battle."
MoDOT is spending a lot of state money and resources picking up trash, according to Hamelink. The cost to clean up litter using MoDOT workers and work release crews, he said, has risen dramatically in recent years.
"We used to average $6 million to $7 million a year in Missouri, he said. "Now it's double that. It's roughly $13 million a year."
While educational campaigns like No MOre Trash! can help, they’re just one solution to a problem that requires several. Hamelink said they not only clean up trash thrown from windows, they also remove things like appliances and furniture that people have intentionally dumped on the state’s roadways. And some littering can be prevented, he said, if people would simply secure their loads.
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