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The Twine Blues

You may have read about some of them in past Transporters, or perhaps seen firsthand that there are a lot of things that end up on the side of roadways. Often times it’s trash, occasionally it’s treasure and other times it’s twine. Yes, good ol’ baling twine. Perhaps second in usefulness only to duct tape, the bright orange string is used for many things in the region, and unfortunately through its use, it ends up near the road.

Justin Peer worked in District 4 as a seasonal TTO during the winter of 2019/2020. On occasion, he would help with roadside cleanup, and he noticed a lot of twine being gathered in certain locations.

“Farmers and even contractors use and lose twine on the roadway,” Peer said. “We pick up twine when doing general maintenance and cleaning along the roadway, but the method we were using required several people and a lot of patience.”

Peer explained that it was typical to have one person slowly drive a truck down the roadway, while another person sat next to them and either pulled twine inside the truck, or walked down the road, grabbing it while walking.

“The length of twine varies and can even span miles,” stated Peer. “Sometimes there just wasn’t enough manpower or time to gather all the twine so it would get left in the dirt.”

Twine left behind can get stuck in broomers and mowers which causes problems and takes a lot of time to clean out.

It didn’t take long for Peer to determine a better method to pick up the orange string. Now, he creates a loop and attaches it to the hitch of the vehicle. Then he can slowly drive slowly down the side of the roadway, letting the truck do the work.

With this method, it’s also possible to pull multiple strings as opposed to one at a time to collect the trash.

“Every so often you have to stop, pull in the length that has gathered, create a new loop and start again. But this method can be done with one person and saves a lot of time, energy and arm fatigue. It’s just a smarter way to work within the department.”