Trash Talk
April 10, 2025 – By Julien Devereux – AUSTIN — If you’ve driven on Texas roads you may have seen soda bottles, shredded rubber from old tires, or maybe even something large like a mattress or washing machine.
It’s all litter and TxDOT works to clear it from the roadway.
Don’t mess with Texas means don’t litter. But even though the famous TxDOT campaign has helped reduce the amount of litter and debris on Texas roads since it launched in 1985, litter is still an issue.
TxDOT spends approximately $50 million every year clearing state roadways of trash.
What is litter and where does it come from?
Litter is any item that hasn’t been properly disposed of. TxDOT classifies roadside litter into two categories, “large litter” — any piece of trash that’s more than two inches long or wide—and “micro litter,” any piece of trash that’s smaller than that.
Most of the litter on Texas roads is large litter: beverage containers like water bottles and cans. Items discarded by motorists account for nearly half of all litter on the roads TxDOT maintains.
Even if something is compostable or recyclable it’s still litter if you don’t dispose of it properly. Throwing a banana peel or apple core on the side of the road is littering just as much as throwing a plastic bag or soda can. And recyclable containers, which comprise 38% of large litter on the roads, won’t be recycled unless they’re sent to a recycling center.
Everything that comes out of a vehicle, whether on purpose or not, accumulates at the side of our roads and can cause hazards for drivers, pedestrians, law enforcement and emergency workers. It can also cause harm to the environment—food thrown out of a car that lands on the side of the road can attract animals and put them in harm’s way, for instance—in addition to simply being an eyesore.
Although large litter like cans, garbage bags and even mattresses are more noticeable, one of Texas’s biggest sources of litter is “micro”: cigarette filters, which many people mistakenly believe are biodegradable, but aren’t.
Most cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, a plastic that takes about 15 years to decompose after being thrown to the side of the road. And that’s not even to mention the fire hazard that comes from tossing cigarettes out the window.
It might sound easy to simply not throw things out of your vehicle—and it is— but even people who don’t intend to litter sometimes do. Accidental littering happens when unsecured items fly out of vehicles, whether from the back of a truck bed or out of an open window.
It all adds up to approximately 362 million pieces of litter collecting on Texas roads every year. That’s more than 11 pieces of litter for every Texan, every year.
What can we do about it?
TxDOT road crews collect litter, and between 2013 and 2023 large litter on Texas roads decreased by 63%. But to eliminate litter in our beautiful state, we need you to join our team.
We can all do our part and not contribute to the litter problem. Carry a small bag in your car to put litter in and put it in the nearest trash can when you get to a gas station or your destination. And if you see litter or debris on the road as you’re driving, once you can safely do so you can report it online here: Report an issue.
If you drive a truck, make sure there’s nothing in the bed that could fly out and end up on the roadway. Unsecured items that become airborne can contribute to the litter problem, but they’re also a safety hazard. Plus, you can be fined up to $2,000 for littering if caught by law enforcement.
And if you want to make an even bigger impact in cleaning our roads, consider adopting a stretch of highway and keeping it clean through our Adopt-A-Highway program, or join your local Don’t mess with Texas Trash-off, held in April every year.
We’ve made great progress reducing the amount of litter on our roads, but with Texas’ growing population, the problem won’t go away without all Texans helping out.
To learn more about litter on Texas roadways and how you can help, visit the Don’t mess with Texas website.
