Recycling

Be a part of the country’s largest community improvement movement spotlighting ten cities!

Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the nation’s largest volunteer-based community improvement organization, is recruiting 4 million volunteers to support its Great American Cleanup 2012 initiative that kicks off this month – nearly a quarter million more volunteers than last year.

The Great American Cleanup is the country’s largest community improvement movement that launches more than 30,000 programs with 1,200 affiliates and participating organizations convening millions of volunteers. Volunteers participate in a variety of activities focused on waste reduction, recycling, beautification and community greening.

“Our mission is to engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their communities,” said Matt McKenna, KAB chief executive officer and president. “We’re fully committed to accelerating the positive impact of the Great American Cleanup each year. To achieve this, we must recruit new volunteers who want to contribute to building sustainable communities. I’m confident that we’ll meet our goal of recruiting and activating an army of 4 million strong this year.”

To support this call-to-action, KAB has declared the first-ever “National Day of Action” on Saturday, April 28 with activities taking place in nearly all 50 states. Special events are planned in ten locations, including Oakland, CA, Los Angeles, Cocoa, FL., Indianapolis, IN, Cobb County, GA, Hampton Roads, VA, Houston, TX, Shreveport, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, PA and Nashville, TN. Each of these locations will lead large-scale cleanups and other coordinated events. For details, visit kab.org.

In 2011, more than 3.8 million volunteers in 16,500 communities took part in 30,600 Great American Cleanup events. Highlights included:

• Removal of 177 million pounds of litter and debris;
• Beautification of 177,000 acres of parks, public lands and open spaces;
• Cleaning 6,400 miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines; and,
• Planting of 166,000 trees and 1.5 million flowers and bulbs.

An emphasis on recycling resulted in the collection of:

• 290+ million plastic bottles;
• 7.9 million pounds of electronics;
• 13.4 million pounds of aluminum and steel;
• 12.1 million pounds of glass; and,
• 807,000 scrap tires.

Here is a full list of 2011 results.

 HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW!

Visit kab.org for a list of participating organizations. If there’s not an organization near you, you can organize your own community improvement project by following specific guidelines provided on the site. You can also “like” the Great American Cleanup at www.facebook.com/GreatAmericanCleanup or follow the Great American Cleanup on Twitter at @icleanupgreenup.