S.C. Called "Dirtiest State" in Litter Report

South Carolina has earned the dubious distinction as the nation’s dirtiest state, ranking dead last for ‘public spaces cleanliness’ in the 2014 American State Litter Scorecard.

Six years ago, when the scorecard started, S.C. ranked 44th.

The scorecard author, Steve Spacek, takes South Carolina to task for abandoning the successful state slogan “Keep it Beautiful, South Carolina” in 2011, failing to ennact container deposit and recycling laws, not prioritizing enforcement of existing laws and spending only $21 per person each year for environmental services. Part of South Carolina’s problem may also be the makeup of the population. South Carolina has the 20th largest population of 16-25 year-olds who, studies have shown are most prone, or willing, to illegally litter/dump wastes on properties, Spacek said.

In addition, South Carolinians “throw away more un-reused, un-recycled items per day’ than the residents of 48 other states, giving it the second worst ranking for most wasteful state.

Compare all this to Florida, one of the cleanest states. Florida has fewer 16-25 year-olds, mandates recycling and has a strong anti-littering campaign, Spacek says.

The scorecard is released by the American Society for Public Administration, a public service advocacy group in Washington, D.C.

14 States More Affordable to Live in than S.C.

For the first time, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysisreleased price-adjusted estimates of personal income for states and metropolitan areas for 2008 to 2012, and it shows that, at the very least, it’s more expensive for Members of Congress to live in the nation’s capital on their $174,000 salary than in any state from which they hail.

The results show the District of Columbia, in 2012, had the highest “regional price parity” of any state. Granted, D.C.’s really a city, not a state, and set against their more natural comparisons, it ranks fifth, behind the Urban Honolulu area, New York-Newark-Jersey City, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Beaches, hedge funds and technology are the key to prices, evidently.

The cheapest metro areas, by this methodology, were Danville, Ill.; Jefferson City, Mo.; Jackson, Tenn.; Jonesboro, Ark.; and Rome, Ga.

Put another way,it costs 54% more to live in Honolulu than in Danville.

The top five states (outside of D.C.) were Hawaii, New York, New Jersey, California and Maryland, and the bottom five states were Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri and South Dakota. So, it costs 36% more to live in Hawaii than in Mississippi.

The BEA says it produced the report in large part so people and businesses can have a better understanding how their personal income may be impacted by a job change or move. There is regional consumer price index data, but those statistics aren’t designed for regional or city comparisons, whereas this data is, a spokesman says.