Last week saw the launch of the 2009 Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Great American Cleanup, with the kick-off of activities like beautifying parks and recreation areas, cleaning seashores and waterways, handling recycling collections, picking up litter, planting trees and flowers and raising awareness. The nation’s largest community improvement program continues until May 30th, with an army of 3 million volunteers and attendees.
From Earth 911:
The Great American Cleanup is not a small project. Last year, 86 million pounds of litter and debris were collected for proper disposal, reuse and recycling. Also, the program:
- Removed 15,200 junk cars, recycled 10.2 million pounds of aluminum and steel and recycled 1.4 million tires
- Recycled 5.3 million pounds of electronics and 137,000 batteries
- Improved over 144,000 miles of roadway
- Recycled 186 million plastic (PET) bottles
- Improved and maintained 91,000 acres of parks and public lands; 7,000 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines; and 6,000 miles of hiking, biking and nature trails
- Recycled 37.1 million pounds of newsprint
- Recycled 5.2 million pounds of clothing
Of course, you want your own community to be free of litter and graffiti, and full of more trees and flowers, right? Who wants to live in a trash hole? That’s why you need to get up off the couch and help make this year’s Great American Cleanup more successful than ever. Find your local organization participating in the cleanup at the KAB website and get the info on how you can contribute.
Don’t make Iron Eyes Cody cry! Let this retro-fabulous crying Indian PSA from 1974 remind you just how important it is to Keep America Beautiful.
