Central Coast crews help clean highways for Caltrans Annual Litter Cleanup Day 2022

ORCUTT, Calif. - Residents from up and down the coast participated in Caltrans' Annual Litter Cleanup Day 2022 which is part of Governor Gavin Newsom's $1.1 billion initiative to clean California.

“It's a three year process where our goal is to clean up as much litter as we can throughout the state of California, create jobs, beautify our state," said Heidi Crawford with Caltrans District 5.

The goal is to fill 81,000 garbage trucks full of litter by 2024.

“We pick up sometimes over a hundred bags a day of trash. We'll clean up a lot of trash and we'll come back to an area and it's full of litter again," said Lompoc resident, Katelyn Merich.

Caltrans said that litter buildup from freeways can negatively affect local ecosystems.

“The trash that’s on the freeways gets blown into our fields where we have our beautiful produce. It goes into our waterways, it gets in our ocean," said Heidi Crawford.

For more information on how to help keep California clean, click here.