MALVERN, Iowa (KMTV) — Community members, especially residents near Malvern, are frustrated by ongoing issues with trash along Highway 34 in Mills County. It's because a landfill is located near the highway and winds carry debris, especially plastic items, into ditches, trees and neighborhoods. A lot of the debris appears to be coming from trucks that aren't properly secured.
- Malvern artist Zack Jones says it hurts economic development in the area. He's trying to create a welcoming place for visitors, but their first impression along the highway isn't ideal.
- “It gets caught on the terraces and, when we get ready to plant corn, it catches on the planter..." said Roger Johnson, a local farmer who also serves on the Malvern City Council.
- Video shows ...blowing trash caught in trees, grass, and fences; a landfill located in rural Mills County.
- PREVIOUS STORY | 'I don't want it to look like I live in a landfill': Wind causes trash nuisance in rural Mills Co.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Neighbors near Highway 34 in Mills County are aggravated after years of dealing with blowing plastic and debris because of a local landfill.
I’m your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel near Malvern where it’s especially bad on windy days like this one.
“A large amount, it’s coming from the trucks that are hauling the trash. And anybody that travels 34, they see it,” said Malvern artist and business owner, Zack Jones.
When we covered this story two years ago, it was on an especially bad day. But folks in Malvern, just east of the landfill, say the debris along the highway is still a nuisance. Artist and businessman Zack Jones says it hurts business.
“I have Airbnbs, they’re here for the first time, and the first thing they see coming into southwest Iowa, into Mills County is a highway that’s littered with plastic,” he said.
Farmer and Malvern City Councilman Roger Johnson has farmland on the north side of 34.
“It gets caught on the terraces and, when we get ready to plant corn, it catches on the planter ... When you’re dropping corn, and it plugs it up, then you got a big streak where you didn’t get your corn planted because that plastic’s in there,” said Johnson.
Locals say the landfill owners pick up the immediate area, but the trash blows out of trucks for several miles along the highway.
“Most of the trucks are covered, but a lot of times, I see more trucks that the back flap, the very back of the truck is not cinched over,” Jones said.
Both Jones and Johnson said they’d like to see less single-use plastic littering the landscape, in general. And some consequences.
“Maybe there is an occasional fine. Because people tend to learn when it costs money,” said Jones.
A spokesman for the Iowa Department of Transportation told me that DOT officers do site truckers for improperly securing loads, including waste removal companies heading to the Loess Hills Landfill on 34. He also encouraged local groups to get involved in the state’s adopt-a-highway program.
