Trash on the highways and streets..... (Los Angeles: how much, home, living)

[RandomMusing]

I moved to the SFV a few months back, and while I love living here thus far, and think Southern California is beautiful I've noticed how much litter / trash is on the side of the highways.

Does LA not have a road cleanup crew? I lived in Chicago for years and I've never experienced this much trash on the side of the highways as I have here in LA. In many other states I've always seen prisoner / work crews do highway trash pickup. Do they do this here? I've noticed some white trash bags, full on the side of the highway like there has been a cleaning crew, but there's still garbage all around it.

[Charles]

I think there are Cal Trans crews; There may also be people doing community service cleaning up roads. I've mostly seen them on freeways. Not sure about city streets - I don't recall ever seeing any, or at least not in the past 30 years. There are street sweeper vehicles but those are to keep the street gutters free of debris.

Here in Huntsville there are male and female Madison County prisoners picking up trash (as shown below on Highway 431 near my house.)


Those might be one of the first things cut when a government starts running out of money.

[RandomMusing]

I guess it's just an endless cycle then because if there are crews picking up the trash from the highways, yet they are still full of trash, something isn't working. I notice it most in my area the 118, the 5 and the 405 are the highways I drive the most.

[katenik]

just another example of how third-world this city is becoming. if you think the freeways are bad, you should see some of the alleys around town.

[cynwldkat]

One mans home is another person trash can!! Some people just can't understand that their trash is ugly!! I use to live up in Tujunga Cyn. and the trash along the rivier was disgusting. Dirty baby diapers, fast food containers, broken glass...you name it and it was there. It got to the point where we couldn't hike or ride our horses there anymore. I use to take large green trash bags to pick up as much as I could but there was no keeping up with it. Some people are just sick!!

[Sorcerer68]

Years ago I took community service because I didn't have the money to pay a ticket and I was given Cal Trans. We got to ride around in the cool stretch van with the porta-potti trailer on the back...and got to pick up trash and heap it into orange bags. Our "overseers" used to sleep while we worked. They were paid well too. This was 11 years ago, I don't know how it is now. There were LOTS of us out there. I ended up borrowing money and just paying the ticket off.

[greggd]

Litter in Los Angeles is a combination of poor screening on pickups & waste hauling vehicles, cultural acceptance to throw litter into the streets and,
on the other side of the coin, deliberate littering from individuals with no self respect for themselves and the surrounding environment.

It is ridiculous that anyone litter, leave loose trash in the bed of their pickup, toss food wrappers, bottles, cigarette butts etc onto the street. It's even
worse that we pay big $$ to clean up after these inconsiderate individuals.

[SurekRZA]

All I have to say is "It could be worse". With the amount of traffic jams, accidents, and cars on the freeways...?? The trash on the roads doesnt amount to what it can be. Chicago is also more Public Transport Friendly than Los Angeles so the amount of individuals on the road is probably one fifth of that in L.A. 4.3 million residents in L.A. compared to 2.8 million in Chicago?

[majoun]

Originally Posted by katenik

just another example of how third-world this city is becoming.

Most of the "first world" has trash problems just as bad or worse than L.A.'s, and has for many years.

[katenik]

Originally Posted by majoun

Most of the "first world" has trash problems just as bad or worse than L.A.'s, and has for many years.

we dispose of dead livestock and pets in urban alleys all across this great land? who knew?