Iowa’s littering hotline and other ways to reduce roadside rubbish

Turns out, it’s pretty hard to cite someone for highway littering — despite the fast food bags, pop cans or even washing machines left on the roadside.

Iowa law has several code sections outlining charges for littering, but the Linn County Attorney’s Office hasn’t charged anyone in the past year. The Iowa State Patrol has filed 67 citations statewide — less than one for each of Iowa’s 99 counties — and Cedar Rapids has cited fewer than 30 people in the last 15 months.

“We almost have to witness it,” Maj. Chad Colston, of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, said about littering. “If we don’t witness it and see the person who did it, it’s very hard to prove. No deputies want to write a ticket that’s not a good ticket.”

If a law enforcement officer is following behind a vehicle and sees trash fly out the window, the officer can turn on the flashing lights, which allows the in-car camera to record what happened in the seconds before, Colston said. But even that doesn’t always work.

“If it’s a carload of kids, how do you know which person did it?” he said.

Challenges with enforcement have made it even more important to discourage littering and encourage local cleanup efforts.

Iowa’s littering hotline

Keep Iowa Beautiful and the State Patrol run a hotline that allows motorists to report littering from other cars.

The hotline received 67 complaint calls in 2022 and 25 between Jan. 1 and May 15. The State Patrol issued 40 warning letters in 2022. The letter tells the driver their car was linked to littering and provides the date and location of the reported offense.

“Randomly discarded trash, even the smallest item such as a cigarette butt — endangers our environment, our wildlife, and may even threaten our safety,” the letter states. “Picking up litter and debris costs taxpayers like you more than $13.5 million each year.”

Although warning letters don’t result in charges, Keep Iowa Beautiful Director Andy Frantz said he thinks they deter future littering.

“If I got something from the highway patrol saying we have a report that you were doing this, I would think the majority of people would think twice about continuing to do that,” he said.

Cedar Rapids littering citations

Since Jan. 1, 2022, Cedar Rapids police have cited 10 people for depositing litter on a highway, 13 for illegal dumping and three for littering in parks or public spaces.

The most common Iowa Code section used to cite someone for road litter is 321.369, which prohibits leaving “trash, garbage, rubbish, litter, offal, or any other debris” on the highway. It’s a simple misdemeanor that comes with a $90 fine and court costs that bring it to $158.50.

Code Section 321.460 is for commercial vehicles that spill litter. This type of ticket will cost you a $260 fine with surcharges bringing it to $350.

“Lots of times on the interstate or highways, you’ll see the lighter-weight stuff that comes out of a truck that’s traveling down the road,” Colston said.

Many area landfills try to address that by requiring drivers to have their loads secured. The Cedar Rapids and Linn County Solid Waste Agency fines residential and commercial customers $25 if waste isn’t covered.

More common than littering calls are calls about dumping of large amounts of garbage, appliances or furniture on county or gravel roads, Colston said.

In those cases, deputies go out to the scene and sort through the garbage, trying to find identifying information, such as a piece of mail that has a name or address. If they find a name, they will reach out to the person and ask them to remove the waste.

“We’ve had cases before where people say, ‘Yeah, I did it and I’ll clean it up,”’ he said. “We’ve allowed them to clean it up. We won’t send that to the public health department or county attorney for a civil fine.”

Cleanup efforts

Because it’s difficult to stop littering, many Eastern Iowa communities have stepped up efforts to clean up the garbage.

Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz has a 1-Bag Challenge that encourages every resident to clean up at least one bag of litter each year. So far in fiscal 2023, which ends June 30, more than 5,500 bags of litter have been collected by volunteers, contractors and city staff through the program, Cedar Rapids reported.

Community groups also take responsibility for roadsides through the Adopt-a-Highway program, which has more than 1,000 groups each year, the Iowa Department of Transportation told The Gazette last fall.

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com