by Jerry Lang of Clean Up Aiken!
September 21, 2023
Clean Up Aiken! is a grassroots group that began organizing cleanup campaigns and finding other solutions to our county’s litter problem in early 2021, and became a not for profit, 501(c)(3) business just one year later. We have been recognized for our efforts by the Aiken County Council and the county’s Keep Aiken County Beautiful campaign. Our Facebook group has 1,300 members and growing.
Clean Up Aiken! presented an ongoing problem and offered one solution to Aiken City Council on February 13, 2023. Out of 100 restaurants we surveyed in the City of Aiken that have take-out service, only 33% of them had an outside trash receptacle. Now this may not seem like a big deal or a real problem, but we have picked up at least 2,008 bags of trash since 2021, and a large part of what we pick up are restaurant/fast food containers, cups, bags and so on.
The opportunity and solution presented to the city council was very simple: require all restaurants to have a “minimum” of one outside garbage receptacle on their property/patio and in a place so their customers don’t have to go back inside to dispose of their trash. All too often customers who use the drive-thru, or do carry-out, eat in their vehicles and then toss their litter out the window because there isn’t a convenient disposal option. It’s also amazing how many of our restaurants with outdoor patio space don’t have a disposal option outside, which forces responsible customers to go back inside to find a garbage can.
Since February 13th, I have sent three follow-up letters/emails to our Aiken City Manager. I also spoke a second time to City Council on September 11th, and still received no response. A few months ago, I was told this issue and our proposed solution was sent to Planning, but we have had no follow up from this department either.
We have offered to work with the city on helping to write a simple ordinance, or work with them to give the Aiken restaurants a solution to help keep our roadways cleaner. Perhaps this “ask” of each restaurant could be part of their business license?
Clean Up Aiken! is ready, willing and able to assist in finding solutions that will help to keep our roads and ditches cleaner. While South Carolina is known as the state with the most litter, we want to make Aiken the exception, and would like to see participation by the city in helping us achieve many small solutions that can solve a larger problem.
The meeting minutes for his speech on February 13, 2023 read:
