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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

Chilton County Litter Agent Libby Ratliff is helping lead an important initiative this April that hopes to combat arguably the county resident’s biggest shortcoming. The 2025 ALPALS “Don’t Drop It On Alabama” Statewide Spring Cleanup has been ongoing throughout the month of April, and Ratliff is helping Chilton County do its part. Started in 1987, ALPALS, Alabama People Against a Littered State, is a statewide organization dedicated to making Alabama more beautiful by sponsoring programs focused on cleaning up litter in the state’s streams, campuses and coastlines.

“You want a person in a community that wants to take pride in that community,” Ratliff said.

The program provides heavy bags and other materials to cities, counties, schools, neighborhoods and volunteer groups to participate in the spring cleanup. Ratliff posts flyers about the spring cleanup through the county for individuals or groups that want to make a difference in the county. Also, Judge Chris Speaks also works closely with Ratliff to give those needing community service hours following a verdict in court a place to do so.

“People that may have gotten a speeding ticket, he gives them a chance to work it off by going and picking up the trash,” Ratliff said.

Once bags are filled up, they are sat by the roadway and the county is called to haul them to the transfer station. Ratliff has kept a record and receipts since the beginning of April when the statewide spring cleanup began of how much trash has been picked up. As of April 16, since April 1, 7,000 pounds, or three and a half tons, of litter has been picked up and taken to the transfer station. The crews have picked up 36 tires as well.

Ratliff will tally up the entire month’s receipts and report it to ALPALS after April. It is expected the final number could be close to 20,000 pounds, or 10 tons, of litter picked up in Chilton County for one month.

“A lot of people do not believe it when they hear (that much weight),” Ratliff said. “Well, here are your receipts.”

As the county’s litter agent for the last 21 years, Ratliff said that litter has always been a massive issue. This is not something that has just started developing over the last decade.

“Litter is a huge problem within the county,” Ratliff said. “Say 5,000 people get a cup of coffee in the morning and throw the cup out of the window – to them, that is just one cup, but it’s 5,000. It has always been a problem.”

Not only is it the ignorant people disposing of trash out of their car windows, Ratliff detailed other instances of construction crews making stops along backroads after cleaning up sites to dump leftover materials, farmers who let feed sacks fly out of trucks and tires being disposed of by mechanics that add to the growing litter crisis.

“They think if they dump it into a creek or off a bridge it is out of sight and out of mind,” Ratliff said.

When asked what compels someone to litter, Ratliff said the thoughts of ‘Well the next person will pick it up,’ or ‘It is job security for others,’ are the reasons she has heard over the years on why people justify littering. She added that it takes 30 years to change a mindset, and the change needs to start now.

“We do not want to be there, and it takes a mindset, it takes our kid’s mindset to turn it around and say ‘I’m not going to throw it out there,’” Ratliff said. “Take pride in your community … And want to live with a cleaner atmosphere because it is not going anywhere, that litter will be there until someone comes along and picks it up.”

ALPALS provides many programs for individuals and communities to volunteer and make a difference. Chilton County also has an Adopt-A-Mile program that allows groups and businesses to sponsor a mile of road and keep it clean.

For more information on ALPALS or other ways to volunteer, contact Ratliff at libbyhratliff@gmail.com.