‘It’s our duty and responsibility’
A group of volunteers comb the roadside for litter along Paxton Farm Road on Wednesday. More than 140 people registered to volunteer for the cleanup for Earth Day. MarkWest and Gateway Engineers of Pittsburgh sponsored the event.
Dante Greco, center, of Weirton, W.Va., and Terrin Christ of Robinson Township pick up wrappers, cans and other litter along Paxton Farm Road on Wednesday. A crew of more than 100 combed area roads, including Route 519 stretching from Houston to Hickory.
Despite a few snow flurries, Joe Diffendal of Canonsburg makes his way along Paxton Farm Road picking up various pieces of litter. Diffendal and others in his group were already filling their second trash bag after traveling only a half-mile of road.
Birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. The snow has melted, and, in its exodus, empty pop cans and greasy fast-food bags thrown from vehicles litter area roadways.
Route 519, from Houston to Hickory, was no exception. But with the help of about 100 volunteers, some of the refuse was removed Wednesday.
Coinciding with Earth Day, volunteers tackled the well-traveled road and some side roads, gathering litter that is not only an eyesore, but a detriment to the environment.
“It has an effect on wildlife, on land and water,” said Laurie Popeck, organizer of the event. “It’s our duty and responsibility.”
As the volunteer coordinator of Keep Washington County Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, and in her job as an environmental scientist, Popeck is all too familiar with the negative effects of littering. She spent part of the cold, wet morning pulling tires from Chartiers Run in Houston.
“They grow,” she said of the rubber detritus. “If you find one, you find more.”
Before moving on to her next trash-collecting destination, Popeck and four other volunteers pulled 13 tires from the roadside bank.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, millions of dollars are spent every year to remove litter, which can kill animals, birds and fish and stunt plant growth.
The cleanup, sponsored by Keep Washington County Beautiful, MarkWest Energy and Gateway Engineers, Pittsburgh, where Popeck is employed, helped to alleviate some of that burden.
The first year the cleanup was held, in 2013, about 60 volunteers collected 2.2 tons of garbage across about nine miles. This year, more than 18 miles of road was cleaned and about 4 tons of trash was collected, including 85 tires.
“As an outdoorsman, it kills me to see this,” Tim Endler, a program technician at PennDOT, which donated safety vests and road signs, said of the debris.
The event also coincided with the Great American Cleanup, a Keep America Beautiful initiative in which millions of volunteers tackle litter, plant trees and sponsor recycling events.
“We need help,” Endler said of PennDOT’s attempt to clean litter from the roads. “There are so many different ways to get involved.”
Robert E. McHale, manager of special projects at MarkWest, donned a bright yellow raincoat and surveyed the many cars filling the MarkWest lot in Chartiers Township, where volunteers converged and where a lunch and hot beverages were served.
“You get this kind of lousy weather and people come out in the rain or snow and do something good,” he said. “It’s not about seeking credit, it’s about doing it.”
In fact, MarkWest has agreed to join PennDOT’s “Adopt-A-Highway” program and periodically clean up Route 519 from Houston to Hickory.
Rick Lowry, a MarkWest employee who was part of the group clearing tires, said he would brave the elements for as long as it took to get rid of the garbage.
“It’s very important to keep things as clean as possible in the environment we work in,” he said.
To learn more about Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, visit www.keeppabeautiful.org.