The state Department of Environmental Protection is accepting registrations for the 2013 Adopt-A-Highway Spring Statewide Cleanup scheduled for Saturday, April 27. Volunteers have until Friday, April 12 to register.
Co-sponsored by the DEP and the state Division of Highways, the Adopt-A-Highway program is administered by the DEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP). Its goals include improving the quality of our environment by encouraging public involvement in the elimination of highway litter.
Individuals, families, churches, businesses, schools, civic organizations, government agencies and communities can register to pick up trash on almost any state-maintained road, back road or main route. Private roads and interstate highways cannot be adopted. The Adopt-A-Highway program provides garbage bags, work gloves and safety vests to volunteers. The state also takes care of disposing of collected trash. Volunteers must be at least 12 years old to participate.
More than 5,500 volunteers turned out for the spring 2012 Adopt-A-Highway cleanup and cleared over 1,500 miles of West Virginia roadways. Since the program’s inception in 1988, state citizens have cleaned up more than 63,000 miles of state highways and roads.
AAH volunteers annually remove over 4 million pounds of trash from state highways. They recycle about 24,000 pounds of glass, 6,700 pounds of plastic and 19,000 pounds of aluminum each year. Currently more than 51,000 volunteers representing in excess of 1,200 organizations keep more than 3,300 miles of West Virginia roads litter free.
To register, call 1-800-322-5530 or send an email to:
dep.aah@wv.gov. If you reach the REAP voicemail, please leave your ID, phone number, group name, date of cleanup, number of participants and the county where your adopted road is located.