Here’s a trashy new trend in Worcester County: officials say the amount of large-scale rubbish items found discarded on rural roads is suddenly and steeply on the rise.
“It’s not like we’re collecting a lot more trash bags or Walmart bags,” said Public Works Director Dallas Baker. “We’re picking up refrigerators, washing machines, tires that people dump down some of our back dirt roads. We’re just seeing the tonnage go up.”
In fiscal year 2023 (from July 1 to June 30), the public works roads division collected 40.5 tons of rubbish, according to Baker. For the 2024 fiscal year, trash collected leapt to 53.2 tons. As of March 17, crews already have collected that same amount, 53 tons, with more than three months still remaining in fiscal year 2025.
Clearing clutter and castoffs costs money. The public works department budgets $3,500 a year for the $80-per-ton tipping fee at the county landfill. Baker said it was last November when his team realized they’d soon blow that budget and went to county leaders to ask for another $1,500.
“So, we got the approval to overspend,” he said Tuesday, “but then, come last month, we’re looking at the budget again and we’re like – we’re gonna overspend even what we asked to overspend.”
As a result, the Worcester County Commissioners on April 1 agreed to waive tipping fees in perpetuity for the total roadside litter collected by the roads division.
The department will still track how much litter is collected because any waste taken to the landfill still has to go across the scales. The landfill takes in about 700 to 800 tons a week in refuse.
It’s a fraction in savings for public works, which has a $5.8 million budget, but it will keep the department from having to go back and continue asking the commissioners for budget increases, “because it’s really just the county charging itself at that point,” Baker said.
It spikes in Wicomico County too,, especially during deer hunting season. You can tell by the amount of beer cans and beer bottles thrown out along side the back roads.