Maintenance crews are currently working their way through Albemarle County roadways as part of a clean-up campaign as part of a program funded by a recently levied tax.
“We are doing a lot of clean-up,” said Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley. “We do it in the spring and we do it again in fall.”
La-Pisto Kirtley said the crews are paid through the proceeds of a five-cent tax Albemarle County began to collect on January 1, 2023 after enabling legislation passed the General Assembly in 2020.
“All revenue from a tax imposed shall be appropriated for the purposes of environmental cleanup, providing education programs designed to reduce environmental waste, mitigating pollution and litter, or providing reusable bags to recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) benefits,” reads the proposed budget for FY27.
The work got underway on March 16 according to Abbey Stumpf, Albemarle’s Director of Communications and Public Engagement.
“Crews covered 363 miles of roadway and collected 1,122 bags of litter, a significant increase over last spring’s 851 bags across 302 miles,” Stumpf said. “The highest concentrations of litter this pickup were found along Monacan Trail (Rt 29 S) with 158 bags, followed by the Rt 250/29 Bypass with 81 bags, and Seminole Trail (Rt 29 N) with 66 bags.”
Stumpf added that crews picked up 3,932 bags of litter between December 2024 and December 2025.
The FY23 budget assumed that there would be $20,000 in revenues in the first half year, revenues that go into a special fund in order to comply with state reporting requirements. Collection was greater than anticipated at $47,233 according to the FY25 budget. A total of $16,885 was spent from the fund that first year.
Collections continued to grow in FY24 with $175,524 before dipping slightly in FY25 to $159,051. The projection for FY26 is $153,748 in FY2026 and the draft FY2027 budget assumes that $148,500 will be brought in.
Speaking at the April 1, 2026 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, LaPisto Kirtley urged people to not give the crews more work.
“Let’s be careful,” LaPisto Kirtley said. “Let’s not throw anything out. Leave it in your car until you can toss it away.”
For more about the plastic bag tax, visit the Albemarle County website.
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