2025 marks a big year for Sumter County's litter initiative "Stash the Trash." As the county takes its usual trash pickups and prepares its educational presentations, this year will also boast the largest event Sumter County's Public Works has ever put on to spread the word on how to keep Sumter clean.
Stash the Trash is primarily a means of teaching Sumter's youth the importance of properly disposing of waste and never littering, and usually litter control officers visit the four quadrants of Sumter County to speak at different schools with their mascot, General KICS. But this year, the officers are switching it up.
On March 22 at Sumter County Civic Center, Stash the Trash will host a large event open to all schools within the county, including private schools and day cares. All individuals are welcome for free, but the event is specifically targeted toward children to educate them about litter at a young age.
While the event will be free, there will be the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for $25 to enter one's name into a drawing for the chance to win an ATV Polaris from Redline Powersports that is valued at about $8,000. If one's name is drawn, however, they must be present at the event to take the ATV home, and Sumter Public Works will make sure the vehicle makes it to its new home if the winner does not have the means to transport the vehicle. Other prizes such as bicycles, gift cards and T-shirts will also be available.
The event will not just be educational, but will also feature games, food trucks, live music and other activities for Sumter's youth.
Raffle tickets are available to purchase at Sumter County's Public Works building at 1289 N. Main St. or by reaching out to Nick Murray at nmurray@sumtercountysc.gov or Litter Control Officer Austin Stout at astout@sumtercountysc.gov.
Sumter's litter control officers have an important role to play in keeping Sumter County litter free, and though the officers enforce anti-litter laws by writing tickets, an equally, if not more, important part of their job is educating the public.
"We feel like half the battle is enforcement, but the other half of the battle is just the education side, so there's a lot of people right now who don't know that it's actually a law that you have to have your loads covered," Murray said about a law that requires residents hauling trash to cover their loads.
As Sumter Public Works enters a new year, they are also boasting a relatively new litter control officer, Stout.
Stout has been a litter control officer for five months now, and he handles enforcement as well as PR.
"We find all of the trash that's been thrown [out] throughout Sumter County. We try to go through that trash and find a name and an address and charge accordingly to the suspects that are [doing] the illegal dumping," Stout said.
Stout was born and raised in Sumter and now gets to help clean up the community he grew up in.
"I know [litter] is not something I've ever liked seeing. I like to keep [Sumter] as clean as I possibly can. Nobody likes to live in trash, so when this job was offered to me five months ago, I jumped on it," Stout said. "I can't see anything better than trying to keep somewhere that we all live as clean as possible. Nobody wants to live in a dirty environment, so think it's a great thing that Sumter County has started, and I'm so glad to be a part of that."
In the five months Stout has been serving as a litter control officer, he has visited schools to educate children about littering, attended trash clean-ups and, according to Murray, shown a real passion for his job.
"With what we do back here [at Sumter County Public Works], yes, we are law enforcement officers, but we have such a large focus on public relations and getting the message out to kids and the community the way that we do, you really gotta have a passion for what you're doing, and with Austin, he does, so he's been a tremendous addition to what we're trying to accomplish out here," Murray said.
Throughout the year, public works has two types of litter pickups: trash pickups for community members who want to participate in cleaning up Sumter and trash pickups for violators who were given citations.
Public works has also recently gotten a digital display board which can be transported to various places and is used to educate the public about covering up their trash loads when transporting waste.
Sumter County has nine recycling centers, all of which are closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays; they are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and from 1:30 to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
Sumter also has one landfill at 2185 E. Brewington Road that is open Monday to Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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