The Arizona Department of Transportation recently provided a summary of the litter collected and removed from state roads by its Adopt a Highway volunteers during 2025.
[Above photo by Arizona DOT]
The agency noted that its Adopt a Highway groups receive two-year permits to clean up roadside litter on highway segments – usually a mile in each direction and largely in rural areas – that are deemed safe for volunteers.
Those groups agree to pick up litter in an adopted stretch at least once per year but preferably three or more times a year – coordinating with Arizona DOT to arrange for safety vests, litter bags, and training for pickup events.
For 2025, Arizona DOT said 764 groups totaling 7,270 individuals spend 16,163 hours collecting and removing 12,876 bags of litter from state roadways – a cleanup effort worth $545,000, the agency said.
“We’re grateful to these civic-minded individuals and groups who dedicate time and effort to their adopted stretches of highway,” noted Mary Currie, Arizona DOT’s Adopt a Highway program manager, in a statement.
“We hope their contributions inspire others to follow their example by volunteering themselves, encouraging others not to litter and securing their loads,” she added.
[Editor’s note: Currie detailed ways to get involved with Arizona DOT’s litter cleanup efforts during a December 2025 episode of the agency’s “On the Road With ADOT” podcast.]
Other state departments of transportation also recently shared the results of volunteer trash removal efforts for 2025.
For example, the Delaware Department of Transportation and its partners collected 82,467 bags of trash from roadsides statewide in 2025, along with 4,977 tires, 5,069 signs, and 196 appliances, as part of the ongoing Keep DE Litter Free cleanup campaign.
The agency noted that litter removal efforts in 2025 were conducted by its maintenance and operations employees, Adopt-A-Highway and Sponsor-A-Highway efforts, the Work a Day Earn a Pay Program, and with help from the Inmate Work Program overseen by the Delaware Department of Corrections.
Meanwhile, more than 77,000 pounds of litter were removed from roadsides and waterways across Tennessee as part of the 5th Annual “No Trash November” month-long campaign in 2025; an effort spearheaded by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Throughout November of last year, 2,470 volunteers participated in 205 cleanup events, the agency said in a statement – collecting 3,596 bags of litter weighing a total of 77,129 pounds.
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