Hampton Litter Index Shows City Slightly Littered
September 7, 2010
Volunteers for the Hampton Clean City Commission conducted the eleventh annual Litter Index on Wednesday August 18th and rated the city’s litter status at 1.55, a measure indicating the city is slightly littered (1 is not littered, 4 is extremely littered). This score was a 10 percent increase over last year’s score of 1.41 and virtually the same as the 2000 score of 1.56. The average score over the past 11 years has been 1.45. New to the index this year were optional indices looking at abandoned vehicles, graffiti, illegal signs, and outdoor storage.
For the first time, volunteers evaluated the city for factors in addition to litter. Graffiti was found in two locations, illegal signs in one location, and outdoor storage in nine locations. Volunteers did not note any abandoned vehicles.
The 56 sites evaluated annually were established based on neighborhood districts and land use within those districts in 2000. The sites are evaluated around the same time annually.
Volunteers who participated in the annual index were Cris Ausink, Leonard Crosby, John Golden, John Moyer, Krystal Owns, and Pat Parker. Volunteers who conducted additional optional indices were Shirley Boyd and Alexis Savage. Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent Megan Ketchum drove the van provided by Hampton Fleet Services.
Six of the ten most littered areas were also on last year’s list of most littered areas. These include residential areas, a mixed use area, an interstate interchange, highways, and a rural road. Other most littered areas included schools and neighborhoods.
The most highly littered areas generally are those that are heavily traveled, but sometimes relatively isolated areas that aren’t particularly “owned by” a neighborhood, business district, or family or they are areas that people feel someone will be paid to clean up. Conversely, a littered neighborhood can indicate a disintegration of “community” and pride in that area. Litter accumulates because people feel they can litter without regard and then as more litter accumulates, others feel more freedom to litter. Litter becomes a vicious cycle at that point.
Litter is tax-expensive to clean up, impacts on the economic viability of a community, encourages neighborhood decline, and is harmful to people as well as to pets and wild animals. Littered cigarettes cause fires and add toxins to our waterways.
In Hampton, virtually every piece of litter that falls is less than a few feet from a storm drain, ditch, or waterway, and from there freely enters the Chesapeake Bay. Stormwater is not treated at a facility before it drains into our waterways.
The volunteers of the Hampton Clean City Commission urge everyone to put trash where it belongs – in a recycling container or a trash can – and to pick up litter as they come across it. Encourage the people you know to help keep our city clean!
For more information about how you can help improve Hampton’s 2010 Litter Index score, contact the Hampton Clean City Commission at 727-1130 or hccc@hampton.gov.
###
Media Contact:
Debbie Blanton, Hampton Clean City Commission Coordinator