OCONEE, SC (FOX Carolina) -
Tyler Goss says when four or five bags of trash fill up a pickup truck in his yard, it's time to head to a landfill.
"We don't get not trash, no trucks come by and pickup anything," Goss said.
He lives in Oconee County, in the Mill Hill area which is located just outside of Seneca. He says people use the ditch behind his home as a litter landfill.
"It stinks every now and then, so we try to do our part in cleaning it up and keeping our space clean," Goss said.
He says he and his family cleaned up some of it. Naturally, when dump trucks rolled into the neighborhood, it was a welcomed sound.
"They started hauling stuff off and they're still circulating it out," Goss said.
Crews with Oconee County Roads and Bridges and Waste Management spent hours picking up TVs, furniture, clothes and other trash from a ditch on Lonsdale Street.
"A lot of people around here, they don't have cars," Goss said. "They walk and just throw things in there."
It's a problem litter control officers who work with the Oconee County Sheriff's Office are aware of.
"It's not necessarily something that you can clean up and then the problem is solved," Jimmy Watt said.
He's a spokesman with the Sheriff's Office. He and other volunteers with several organizations recently participated in the Great Oconee County Cleanup.
"Just that five mile stretch of Highway 123, we picked up over 2,300 pounds of trash," Watt said.
During a FOX Carolina investigation, we learned some who live in the Mill Hill area are concerned with accumulating garbage and no pick-up service.
"It really emphasizes the importance of these partnerships," said Watt. "Working together to make Oconee not only a safer place to live, but also a beautiful place to live, as well."
Investigators setup an anonymous litter line on the web so they can get reports and clean up sites.
"It's a nice little place to live," Goss said."I'm glad it's getting cleaned up."