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Clyde Marley (left) presented Adopt-A-Highway Outstanding Volunteer Group plaque
from Idaho Transportation Board member Lee Gagner

One-man sanitation service

He doesn’t care for trash – so he does something about it.

Clyde Marley, that is. Not Bob Marley.

That’s why he cleans roadsides of U.S. 20 between the Ucon and County Line Road interchanges south of Rigby.

It’s a 2.3-mile stretch, if you don’t count on- and off-ramps.

Marley cleans shoulders and ditches single-handedly, and he’s been doing it faithfully, prompting the Idaho Transportation Board to name him the Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) 2016 Outstanding Adopt-A-Highway Volunteer Group at its annual board meeting in Rigby on July 21.

Last year Marley picked up 8,000 pounds of garbage, filling 190 large orange bags, along with big items he couldn’t bag such as tires and plywood. He patrolled the roadsides four to five hours per day June through October.

“It’s therapeutic,” he said, “and it gives me a reason to grouse.”

A retiree who moved to eastern Idaho from Morro Bay, California, two years ago, Marley formerly worked for Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) and wears his old orange gear while collecting refuse.

He has hated trash ever since serving in the Navy in San Diego 45 years ago.

“Cigarette butts were everywhere along the streets and sidewalks, so I put my own butts in my fatigue jacket,” he said. “I didn’t want to add to the mess.”

Primary cause of litter accumulation in the Snake River Valley?

People don’t cover their loads. Local contractors are especially bad, Marley said.

Picture courtesy East Idaho News

“If police ticketed more contractors, it would help,” said his wife, Shannon.

Other people are just inattentive or thoughtless.

Marley dubbed his Adopt-A-Highway volunteer group “Not Bob Marley,” because people keep asking him if he’s related to the famous musician from Jamaica.

“Not Bob Marley,” in fact, is on ITD’s Adopt-A-Highway signs marking off his stretch of responsibility, puzzling passerbys.

“Removing trash needs to be done,” Marley said. “It should be the mindset of America.”

Clyde isn’t Bob, and he isn’t the normal citizen who simply avoids littering. He’s a one-man sanitation service.