In addition to the usual stunning views of self-storage facilities and furniture stores, drivers along Interstate 5 from Bellingham to Grandview Road have noticed a lot of garbage strewn along the side of the highway.
Don’t trust everything you read on Reddit, but people posting to the Bellingham group on that social media site have been active over the past couple days on a post headlined, “I-5 Whatcom is filthy.” One commenter claimed they followed the driver of a fully loaded recycling truck through Bellingham “with cans and plastics flying out of his bins the entire way.”
Community members who take pride in being in harmony with nature were embarrassed at the sight of all that roadside litter, even suggesting on Reddit they would go out and clean up the mess themselves — and bill the government for their trouble, of course.
The state agency in charge of highway trash pickup is the Department of Ecology, and officials there confirm what Redditors are saying. Steven Williams, Ecology’s solid waste section manager for the northwest region, said complaints about trash along highways are always up during the winter, but they’ve been especially frequent this season compared to non-COVID-19 years.
What a surprise: It’s COVID-19’s fault.
The youth corps that pick up highway trash in the summers were canceled the past two years, Williams said, and the adult crews in the spring and fall were smaller than usual so they could meet social-distancing requirements.
Does that mean all the garbage along I-5 wasn’t picked up last fall?
“Of course it wasn’t,” Williams said.
Interstate garbage removal never happens from late November through February because the weather isn’t favorable. Crews will return to I-5 in early March, Williams said, adding that he hopes they’re back to full strength this year.
