YORK, Pa. — Pick Up Pennsylvania, a program that aims to remove litter from communities across the state, kicked off at the beginning of the month. Organizers from Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful are running this fall event and encourage people to organize litter clean ups in their neighborhoods.
One of the perks of participating in this event is that Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful will provide gloves, bags, and safety vests for volunteers for free from their local PennDOT. There is also reduced or free trash disposal available.
Michelle Dunn, Coordinator of Pick Up Pennsylvania, suggests that families, friends, or coworkers get together to clean an area of their neighborhood. If you’re looking for a place that might have more litter than other places, Dunn suggests contacting your local municipality or watershed groups.
According to a 2019 study by the Department of Environmental Protection, local Pennsylvania roads have an average of 1,030 litter items per mile. Dunn’s hope is to help get that litter removed to both beautify the area and keep waterways clean.
“We’re supporting our cleanup partner, International Coastal Cleanup, since we know with all this flooding all trash travels, it will eventually get to our ocean, so we’re working with them on this program and just promoting community cleanups to keep the trash and litter from our waterways,” says Dunn.
There are currently 30 groups signed up across the state and the program will continue accepting volunteers through the end of November on the Keep PA Beautiful website. If you do not have a group to sign up with, you can sign up as an individual volunteer and join other groups online as well.
“You can sign up anytime. Now is a great time, the vegetation is starting to die back, you can see the roadside litter.” Dunn tells Fox43. “Organize your friends, your family, your coworkers and just get out there and beautify your area.”
Dunn wants people to know that they can make a difference in their community.
“We drive by the trash all the time and we look at it and we say oh boy that’s terrible. But here’s a program that you can get resources within your community, rally your community, and make a difference right where you live."