Volunteers remove more than 300 tons of litter during spring cleanups

 

Litter cleanups sponsored by the state departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation removed more than 600,000 pounds of trash from West Virginia’s landscape this spring.

Numbers were recently finalized for the state’s Make It Shine and Adopt-A-Highway April cleanups. Both events rely heavily on volunteer efforts for their success and this spring more than 9,000 West Virginians participated in cleanups that yielded more than 300 tons of litter.

“We could not accomplish the great things these programs do without dedicated West Virginia citizens, who spend their free time picking up litter along our roadways and streams,” said Danny Haught, chief of the DEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP), which oversees the programs. “West Virginians are proud of their state and its beauty and understand the importance of keeping it clean.”

The Make It Shine cleanup ran the first two weeks of April and attracted 5,217 volunteers. There was at least one cleanup in each of the state’s 55 counties and volunteers removed 380,474 pounds of trash from roadways, streams, trails and parks. They also collected 2,429 discarded tires.

The official Adopt-A-Highway cleanup day was April 26. A total of 3,880 volunteers, representing 460 groups, combed 1,085 miles of West Virginia’s roadways. They collected 259,945 pounds of litter.

Contact:

Tom Aluise
304-926-0499
Thomas.J.Aluise@wv.gov