If you haven’t noticed it yourself on the sides of the road and elsewhere, there is a tremendous litter problem in Dillon County.
As fast as the county cleans up an area, more people come and dump more trash. It can be anything to paper, cans, and regular household trash to mattresses, couches, and more. Since Dillon County assigned a crew to regularly pick up litter and trash, they have picked up nearly 500,000 lbs.
The litter problem was recently discussed at a Dillon County Council meeting when a Hamer resident came to speak on the issue. He said more enforcement is needed and that is absolutely correct. If the people who throw out litter were caught and had to pick up litter for a certain amount of time, it would discourage others from doing so. It’s going to take enforcement and a change of attitudes to change the problem.
One would hope that people would take pride in their community and stop trashing it.
One can keep their trash in their vehicle and dispose of it home instead of throwing it out of the window of their vehicle as they ride by.
For household trash and other items, the county provides convenience trash sites throughout the county where trash can be taken. We have a landfill where trash can be dumped for a small fee. This trash doesn’t have to end up on the sides of roads or private property.
It’s a choice that is being made by the people who dump it, and they need to be encouraged through fines and community service not to make bad choices.
We all need to do our part in the fight against litter. There are public clean-up days in some of our communities and some of our county council members have sponsored clean-up days.
If you have the time, take part. Establish your own area to keep clean and litter free. If you see someone dumping trash, report them if you know who they are or take down their license tag number if you can safely do so. Palmetto Pride has a phone number where one can report a litter bug, 1-877-7-LITTER. They also have a litter busters report form on their website. Also, take the time to educate your family about litter and ways they can help. If we all join the fight, maybe we can have a cleaner, greener Dillon County.