SCDOT: Lack of inmate and volunteer crews due to COVID-19 causing trash to pile up on SC highways

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– The impact of COVID-19 can be seen almost everywhere now, including on South Carolina’s interstates. According to the Department of Transportation, the pandemic is keeping inmate crews and volunteers from gathering to clean up highways.

Officials say the problem is made worse by more people eating drive-through food and tossing the containers out of their vehicles.

In 2019, officials say prisoners cleaned more than 15,000 miles of interstate.