This from Stephan Schwartz’s ever interesting roundup sent out in his daily Schwartzreport. (Comments in brackets below are Stephan’s.)
Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup Reduces Blight on Communities
Environmental News Network
[This is a wonderful story of citizen achievement. Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This national nonprofit forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. The Great American CleanupTM is the organization's signature program that mobilizes millions of volunteers to improve their communities through hands-on participation. For more information, visit www.kab.org.
Thanks to Sam Crespi]
STAMFORD, CT. - After four months of tabulating data from all 50 states, the results are in. Thanks to the efforts of 2.2 million volunteers across America, more than 37 million plastic bottles and more than 2.5 million scrap tires were diverted from the waste stream during Keep America Beautiful’s Great American CleanupTM, the nation’s largest community improvement program which takes place annually from March 1 through May 31.
These highlights were among the official results announced today by Great American Cleanup Managing Director Gail Cunningham, and were emblematic of the scale of this national grassroots effort to clean up, green up, fix up and revitalize neighborhoods from coast to coast.
“Through the Great American Cleanup, Keep America Beautiful’s mission to improve communities is put in to action,” said G. Raymond Empson, president of Keep America Beautiful. “We know that our participating organizations are bringing a sense of ownership and pride to their respective communities, making them safer, cleaner and more economically viable.”
Across America, volunteers removed more than 228 million pounds of litter and debris. The volunteers, registering more than 7.5 million volunteer hours, collected 10 percent more litter and debris than the all-time record of 2005. As impressive, the dollar value of volunteer hours logged during the event translates into a contribution of nearly $129 million in wages, significantly lowering the financial and organizational burden on local and state governments.
Other 2006 Great American Cleanup results highlights include:
· 10,200 illegal dump sites clean, which is more than double the number of sites cleaned in 2005
· 168,000 miles of streets, roads and highways cleaned and beautified, approximately equal to seven times around the earth
· 3,900 miles of hiking, biking and nature trails cleaned, equivalent to a trail stretching from Key West, Fla., to Seattle
· 38.5 million pounds of aluminum and steel recycled, an 80 percent increase over 2005’s total
· 4.8 million pounds of electronics recycled, a 32 percent increase over 2005’s total
· 5.4 million plants, flowers and bulbs planted, a 29 percent increase over 2005’s total
· 65,400 acres of parks/public lands cleaned, a 28 percent increase over 2005’s total
Keep America Beautiful works with national sponsors and local community-based organizations during the Great American Cleanup to conduct 30,000 events in 15,000 communities, producing remarkable results through “reduce, reuse, recycle” programs, beautification initiatives, and hands-on experiential education.