We have noted a severe trash problem in North Carolina since moving here in 2001, not just in Surry County, but in other counties as well. North Carolina has a very high illegal immigrant population, and the construction workers routinely toss food and drink packages out the windows of their trucks. There is a very large amount of roadside trash within a few thousand feet of all the quick stops and fast food places. They come here and continue the behaviors they practice in Mexico - just look at the pictures of our southern border with garbage everywhere. Just deporting the illegals would certainly help this disgusting problem. To be fair though, just recently we witnessed an old woman in Surry County throw a bag of trash out her window in a parking lot. Maybe there's a link between those would come here illegally, and those who allow and encourage them to be here in the first place.

Board plots how to keep Surry clean

April 10, 2008
By Brook R. Corwin
brook@surrymessenger.com

DOBSON — Between the dozens of church and civic groups, 59 in all, who man county roads for the Adopt a Highway program, Paul Johnson sees plenty of initiative to keep the area free from of litter.
But the county commissioner from Pilot Mountain can’t help thinking even that much manpower is overmatched. “There are so many community groups that pick trash up. But they can pick it up one Saturday and by the next Saturday it will be right back out there,â€