Vounteers Turn Out to Help Keep Arkansas Beautiful

Keep Arkansas Beautiful’s (KAB) annual fall Great Arkansas Cleanup (GAC) attracted more than 7,000 volunteers in 58 counties who removed more than 180,000 pounds of litter over a two-month period.

From Sept. 7 through Oct. 31, more than 180 community events attracted 7,268 volunteers who removed 182,604 pounds of litter and collected over 391,345 pounds of bulky waste from 1,148 miles of roadsides and 979 miles of waterway. Volunteers also collected litter from 20,466 acres of public parks and trails, up 619 acres from last year’s cleanup.

“This fall cleanup, we saw a great influx in volunteers and the amount of litter they removed from waterways, roadsides and public areas, surpassing last year’s Great Arkansas Cleanup results,” said Mark Camp, KAB executive director. “We had 1,710 additional volunteers remove 105,717 more pounds of litter than last year.”

Volunteers spent 37,086 hours volunteering during the cleanup, up from 25,743 hours, and removed an additional 2,169 tires over last year.

The Great Arkansas Cleanup was sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Arkansas Department of Transportation, the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation and Keep America Beautiful.

In March, Keep Arkansas Beautiful will support Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup with litter pickup and beautification projects statewide. Individuals interested in organizing a cleanup event during the Great American Cleanup can get more information at http://bit.ly/KAB-CLEAN.

About Author

Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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