Volunteers tackle litter problem one piece at a time

In 2003, four friends from the Johnsburg area began volunteering to pick up litter near the town's main stretch of road under McHenry County's Adopt-A-Highway program. Twenty years later, they're still at it.

John Katzenmayer, the coordinator for volunteer group Friends of the Environment, said the friends chose their name simply because that's what they believe in.

“We're just four close friends that want to do something for the common good,” Katzenmayer said. “The passion is because we want to preserve our environment. There's just a lot of trash that people carelessly and purposely throw along the road, and we don't want that in our community.”

The county Division of Transportation's Adopt-A-Highway program currently has 148 groups like Katzenmayer's covering 147 miles of road. Volunteer groups typically adopt a half-mile to two-mile section of highway for a two-year period. At least four trash collections are required each year.

Other counties, including Kane, DuPage and Lake, run similar Adopt-A-Highway programs. Some municipalities, like Schaumburg, also have local Adopt-A-Highway initiatives, while the Illinois Department of Transportation runs a statewide program that Cook County residents can turn to.

Last year, IDOT volunteers collected more than 1,700 bags of trash, which included “televisions, toys and one hand-written note apologizing for eating the last of a box of Twinkies,” according to a news release.

In McHenry County, the Friends of the Environment group, which has waxed and waned in size but has always maintained those four core members, visits the same three-quarter-mile stretch of road four times a year. The friends' section of Chapel Hill Road, which they've “adopted” stewardship of through the county program, passes over the Fox River and leads to the heart of Johnsburg.

“It's just a beautiful stretch of road,” Katzenmayer said.

The group has a tradition of starting with one half of the road going in one direction and swinging by a local pizzeria before turning around and finishing the job in the other direction.

“This is a good community thing to do and it's a good social thing to do,” Katzenmayer said. “It's a lot of fun being out in the fresh air, and it's very rewarding, and whenever we do it, we feel good.”

He added that between shoes, t-shirts, beer bottles and food containers, the group is constantly amazed at what people seem to purposely throw along the road: On one warm summer day, a driver threw a slushie out of their car window while the group was cleaning up.

“We're Friends of the Environment because the environment needs friends. It doesn't clean itself,” Katzenmayer said. “Over 20 years, we haven't lost sight of that fact.”

Statewide, IDOT spent $26.5 million in 2022 picking up litter and large debris — the equivalent of the cost of resurfacing 13 miles of interstate.

In an ongoing awareness campaign, the agency is encouraging residents to “think before you throw” to protect the state's wildlife, environment and 150,000 miles of roads.

Roadside litter also can cause distractions on the road and requires maintenance that puts workers in potentially hazardous situations, the department said in its statement, adding that littering is illegal and subject to a fine of up to $1,500 in Illinois.

Locally, forest preserve districts also turn to volunteers to help tackle the problem and raise awareness.

The Cook County Forest Preserve District runs three types of litter cleanup volunteer programs: Select Organized Litter Obliterators for individuals and small groups, the Litter Obliterators group cleanup for organized groups like schools or corporate groups, and Adopt-A-Site, which operates similarly to Adopt-A-Highway for those interested in committing to keeping their favorite picnic grove, trail or shoreline clean throughout the year.

“Our main goal is litter prevention,” said Joe Swano, the district's volunteer program coordinator. “It seems kind of weird, but what we're looking for is less litter overall. When people see other people taking care of a preserve, they can tell that people care about it, and that makes them less likely to litter.”

Between the two litter obliterator initiatives, 4,658 volunteers participated in litter cleanup workdays in 2022. Throughout that same year, Adopt-A-Site volunteers logged 437 visits.

“It's not only the benefit that the volunteer provides to nature, to the forest preserves and to the other forest preserve users, but it's what you as a volunteer get back. It's those physical and mental health benefits, maybe it's spending time with family or spending time with your organization,” Swano said. “Litter cleanup is an easy way to get involved to give back, but also get something back as well.”

• Jenny Whidden is a climate change and environment writer working with the Daily Herald through a partnership with Report For America supported by The Nature Conservancy. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.