PEMBROKE — Placing cameras throughout the county to help reduce littering was discussed Tuesday by members of the Robeson County Clean and Green Committee.
Pembroke resident Giovanni Selles suggested placing cameras near train tracks and other areas to help identify people who litter. Areas along Three Bridges and Moss Neck roads were named as littering problem areas that would benefit from the use of cameras.
“I know it’s going to take a lot of money,” Selles said.
But, the problem needs to be addressed, he said.
Committee Chairman Raymond Cummings asked Kristina Locklear-Cummings, assistant director for Recycling at the Department of Solid Waste, to look into buying cameras. Cummings, a member of the county Board of Commissioners, did not specify how many.
“Let’s buy some cameras,” he said. “We’ll find the money.”
The committee is open to new ideas and will continue to implement them, Cummings said.
Tiffany Locklear, a Project Trash Talk Steering Committee member, said she will meet with teachers from elementary schools across the county at the Public Schools of Robeson County Central Office on March 16 to present a kindergarten through fifth-grade curriculum that discourages children from littering.
“We want to get everybody to buy in,” said Locklear, who also teaches fourth grade at St. Pauls Elementary School.
The curriculum would include daily videos, and discussions and activities to educate elementary children on the problem of littering, she said.
Also on Tuesday, Lillian Hunt, Adopt-a-Highway coordinator, gave an update on the program.
Robeson County is in the top 15 counties in the state with the highest Adopt-a-Highway roads, she said. The county has 78 Adopt-a-Highway roads, with 10 more pending.
The program allows people to sponsor roadways to keep clean for a four-year span. Sponsors must participate in four litter pickups each year along two miles of roadway, she said.
In 2019, 222.47 tons of roadside trash was collected in the county, Locklear-Cummings said.
Three county Environmental Control officers wrote 218 litter violation tickets in 2019, she said. Littering fines start at $250.
The Robeson County Sheriff’s Office also is doing its part to address litter, said Maj. Susan Green, supervisor of the Robeson County Detention Center.
Through the Statewide Misdemeanant Confinement Program the Detention Center is housing eight inmates from counties across the state to participate in the collection of litter, Green said. In doing so, the inmates, charged with misdemeanor crimes, can reduce their sentences by four to six days a month.
The next Clean and Green Committee meeting is scheduled for April 9.
