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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The head of Louisiana’s new task force to fight a persistent litter problem says he saw mattress, rolls of shrink-wrap and cans along the highway as he drove to the group’s first meeting.

“I was disgusted,” Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, whose office oversees tourism, state parks and museums, told the Governor’s Task Force on Statewide Litter Abatement. “It’s unacceptable.”

The task force created by Gov. John Bel Edwards held its first meeting Tuesday in Baton Rouge, The Daily Advertiser reported.

“I don’t know that in my lifetime the problem with litter has ever been worse than it is right now,” said Edwards, who appointed Nungesser, of Covington, to lead the group. “We are not being good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. We are called on to do better.”

This is not the first time that the issue has come up. In 2017, former state parks director Robert Barham called Louisiana “the trashiest state in America” as he was testifying at a hearing in Baton Rouge.

Over the years efforts have been made to address the issue, such as a bill to add anti-littering education to schools and to beef up certain littering-related penalties.

The task force faces a July 1 deadline to come up with recommendations.