Taxpayer Cost Of Litter And Trash in Tennessee

10 years ago we started a series of Taxpayer Cost of Litter, which then evolved to a Cost of Litter per state. Has the costs gone up? Starting with Tennessee, who launched in 2016 a big “Nobody Trashes Tennessee” litter prevention campaign. Obviously, the cost of litter abatement should have gone up.. the latest taxpayer costs are $15 Million per year. With a population of 6.651 Million that equates to over $2,200 taxpayer dollars going out to pick up litter.

That is sad, think about what $2000 could do to help your community or even yourself.

I Just Got To Eco You

• $15 million annually to pick up litter off of roadsides .
• 30% of Tennesseans say they have knowingly littered. (Tennessee Department of Transportation)
• 15 million pieces of litter on Tennessee roadsides at any one moment,” (Mark Nagi)
• 2016 research shows there are still 100 million pieces of litter on TDOT rights-of-way.
• 28% of litter is classified as intentional litter (People deliberately threw trash out the window)
• 72% is considered negligent litter (Trash out of uncovered trucks and cars)

• 11% of Deliberate litter is cups, fast food, straws, beverages, lids
• 6% snack food packaging
• 5% is paper bags, napkins, tissues
• 2% Cigarette Packaging

Illegal Dumping

• 2016  29 tons of trash were picked up after being illegally dumped along unincorporated Shelby County roads (Source)
• 2016 Shelby County, in March alone, crews picked up 33 tons of roadside debris. (Source)
• $5000 county taxpayers are paying in Kingsport for Illegal Dumping (Kingsport Times)
• $120,000 Cost of Illegal Dumping in Mt Roosevelt (2018) . 10 tons of waste has dumped in the Mount Roosevelt management area and has cost more than $120,000 to clean, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. (Source)
• 1800 Calls per year the  Metro Public Works in Nashville receives to clean up illegally dumped waste and litter.
• 580 clean-ups and over 644 tons of litter and illegal dumping picked up from Nashville’s streets, alleys and streams. (Nashville Government)

Meth Labs 

• 1,585 meth lab incidents in 2013
• It can cost a property owner up to $25,000 to safely put an average three bedroom space back online after a meth lab is discovered

In conclusion, the costs have gone up, primarily because people are trashing more and the apathy is pathetic. They just do not care and are basically disrespectful and rude to their neighbors and the Mother Nature.

Resources

• Nobody Trashes Tennessee Campaign www.nobodytrashestennessee.com
• Litter Free in Tennessee (Anderson County, Tennessee)
• Online Litter Hotline : Tennessee Government
• Keep Tennessee Beautiful 
• Tennessee River Rescue 
• Report Litterbugs (Knoxville, Tennessee)
• Johnson City Press: Plastic Bags are Trashing Tennessee 
• Bristol Tennessee 
• The Big Business Of Cleaning Up Meth Homes