Great American Cleanup ™

 

Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest community improvement program, takes place annually from March 1 through May 31, involving an estimated 3 million volunteers and attendees. The hardworking volunteers donated more than 5.2 million hours in 2009 to clean, beautify and improve more than 32,000 communities during more than 30,000 events in all 50 states and beyond. Activities included beautifying parks and recreation areas, cleaning seashores and waterways, handling recycling collections, picking up litter, planting trees and flowers, and conducting educational programs and litter-free events. 

 

Keep Akron Beautiful participates in the Great American Cleanup by organizing Clean Up Akron Week, planting the 40 flowerscapes annually, recruiting volunteers to participate in the Adopt-A-Site Program, and conducting environmental education programs such as Arbor Day.

 

 Check out the amazing difference that the Great American Cleaup made across the United States last year!

EVENTS / VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers/participants         3.9 million
Volunteer hours          5.7 million
Communities involved/events    33,700/30,000
Community groups that participated
        118,000
   
CLEANUPS  
Litter & debris collected (lbs)        76 million
Roads, streets & highways cleaned/beautified (miles)            124,000
Parks & public lands cleaned (acres)               71,000
Hiking, biking & nature trails cleaned (miles)            3,400
Playgrounds & community recreation areas cleaned/restored/constructed               3,100
Rivers, lakes & shoreline cleaned (miles)        6,800
Underwater cleanups conducted           60
Wetlands cleaned & improved (acres)                   10,500
Illegal dump sites cleaned           6,500
 
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE  
Clothing collected for reuse (lbs)     5.6 million
Aluminum & steel recycled (lbs)      15.3 million
Newspaper recycled (lbs)    91.5 million
Tires collected for recycling
       1.1 million
Batteries collected for recycling
           3.1 million
Electronics recycled (lbs)    7.2 million
PET (plastic) bottles collected for recycling
  266 million
Glass collected for recycling (lbs)
    14.9 million
Junk cars removed/collected for recycling   5,600
   
BEAUTIFICATION/COMMUNITY GREENING  
Trees planted            160,000
Gardens, xeriscapes & green space areas created & improved              5,600
Residential and commercial buildings painted/renovated/built                3,000
Graffiti removal, sites abated             10,600
Flowers & bulbs planted 2 million
Edible community gardens planted or replanted
             1,100
   
EDUCATION  
Educational workshops held
              7,800
Educational workshop attendees (total)             540,000
  Adults/Children:                                207,000/333,000
General awareness events held                 7,400
General awareness event attendees         5.5 million

 

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