Broward Blog

The Results Are In…More Than 100,000 Pounds of Litter Was Removed From Broward County During the Great American Cleanup

June 28th, 2007

How much garbage is that? It’s enough to fill two full-sized garbage trucks, and weighs as much as 50 compact cars, or 10 elephants, or 100,800,000 cigarette butts! Between March 1 and May 31, 2007, Broward County’s Waste and Recycling Services’ Adopt-A-Street section, in conjunction with Broward Beautiful, put together a cleanup drive that surpassed all previous records. A total of 2,419 individuals, including volunteers from 20 local schools, community organizations and Adopt-A-Street groups, removed 91,000 pounds of trash during a record 91 events. An additional 15,900 pounds of materials (plastic, glass and aluminum) were picked up and recycled during litter-free events.

Clean & Green Day

As part of the Great American Cleanup, Broward County held its first annual Clean & Green Day event on Saturday, May 12, targeting the Town of Southwest Ranches for a major cleanup. Eighty-five Adopt-A-Street volunteers removed 1,780 pounds of roadside litter and illegally dumped materials from the Town.

Nationally, the Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest annual community improvement program. This year’s activities are expected to result in as many as 2.5 million people nationwide volunteering more than 8 million hours to clean, beautify and improve 15,000 communities in all 50 states!

While Broward County’s contribution was impressive, the national result was phenomenal! More than 228 million pounds of litter and debris were collected; more than 2.5 million scrap tires and 37 million plastic (PET) bottles were removed from the waste stream; 10,000 illegal dump sites were cleaned; 38.5 million pounds of aluminum and steel were recycled; more than 5.5 million trees, flowers and bulbs were planted; and more than 6,000 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines were cleaned by more than two million volunteers.

Treasures Among the Trash

Among the most unusual items found by volunteers in the nationwide Great American Cleanup were: An antique beer bottle, arrowhead, billfold, bowling ball, crab trap, diamond ring, endorsed paycheck, message in a bottle, old wringer-style clothes washer, slot machine, and a $5,000 check—uncashed! Which all goes to prove the old axiom: Garbage is never boring!

How You Can Get Involved

There are three ways you can participate in the Great American Cleanup 2008.

• Adopt-A-Street groups can clean their designated street during March, April or May. (This cleanup will count toward the required four cleanups per year.)
• Broward County School Groups can set a date during March, April or May to clean up or green up around school grounds, in a local park, or in a community. A Litter Prevention and Waste Reduction presentation can be scheduled in conjunction with a cleanup.
• Volunteer at one of our scheduled GAC 2008 events. Updates coming this winter.

Entry Filed under: Broward News