There are 1,894 miles of paved roads maintained by Citrus County.

Trash is Everyone’s Problem Along Citrus County Roads

Each day, Citrus County’s litter collection crew covers about ten of them. It’s a four-person team and, no matter how many times they work each right-of-way, their job is never done.

“We work ten hours a day, four days a week,” said team member Patrick Collins. “We don’t get every
single piece of litter–that’s impossible,” he said, “but we get the main pieces that are visible.”

Last year alone, they collected over eighty-nine tons of trash along Citrus County roadways. With the
additional support of Adopt-a-Highway volunteers, more than ninety-three tons was gathered in all. “We
weigh-in every day,” said Collins.

Where does it all come from?

“It comes from people either throwing it out of their car window or losing it from the bed of their pick-up
or trailer,” said Dan Sherlock, Director of Citrus County’s Solid Waste Division.

“It’s mainly household trash, litter, things that fly off the back of cars and construction trucks,” added
Patrick Collins, as he picked up a shattered piece of drywall along West Grover Cleveland Boulevard.

The crew sticks mainly to heavily traveled main thoroughfares, but no county-maintained road or street is
beyond their scope.

“We do not cover the state roads; those are done by a separate contractor,” said Sherlock, “but we will go
pick up any county road there is.” He explains: “If you have a tiny street and somebody has dumped
garbage all over the street, you just call the landfill office, and we can schedule it.”

On a recent day, the litter crew picked up nine hundred pounds of trash from one such illegal dump.
“I think we have a large number of people who want the County to be clean,” commented Sherlock. “I
think most people, if you drove down the street you live on, you wouldn’t want to see it covered in
garbage,” he added.

“Litter is everyone’s job,” said Citrus County Administrator Steve Howard, “and it takes everyone in the
County coming together to keep it clean.”
To request right-of-way litter collection, call the Citrus County Solid Waste Division at (352) 527-7670.