Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris says bottles and cans make up more than half of the trash his litter crews pick up every year.

"It's embarrassing to me when people drive through our county and see trash," Harris said.

Still, he says the situation is not like this everywhere. A dozen states including New York, Michigan, and Maine all have "bottle bills." 

"If you travel through Maine, you don't see any trash," Harris said. "You have to look for it. You drive through Tennessee, it's right in your face."

Harris along with the Tennessee Sheriff's Association recently voiced its support for a "bottle bill" in Tennessee. The bill would force people to dish out an extra five cents per bottle or can of soda, beer, or water. However, people would get that money back when they return the empty bottle to a redemption center.

Sheriffs believe the bill would go a long way in cleaning up their counties. Although supporters say 85% of the public would take advantage of the five-cent per bottle refund, the other 15% wouldn't claim their bottles, meaning they would help fund litter clean-up. Under the program, state funding for county litter grants would double from $5 to $10 million.

Still, some fear this would be just like a new tax. A tax that only punishes those who don't recycle.

"I would want to recycle, but I would still probably throw the bottle away," Johnson City resident Sarah Arrowood said. "We don't need any new taxes. That's what they'd be doing, more or less."

Still, many like Darrell Woody of Washington County support the proposal.

"If we don't start recycling then all our land is going to be filled up," Woody said.

Sheriff Kent Harris says not just at landfills, but on the sides of Tri-Cities roads too.

The Tennessee Sheriff's Association will hear from opponents of the bill at a meeting in Nashville Wednesday. The legislation is expected to start making its way through committee in the coming weeks.