If you are driving along Arizona’s highways this coming Saturday and think you see more roadway cleanup crews than normal, you won’t be imagining things.
Sept. 18 is National CleanUp Day, and the Arizona Department of Transportation has been proactive in getting the word out to its 1,200 volunteer groups that hold a Adopt a Highway permit. It has also promoted one-day permits in hopes of getting new volunteers to commit to cleaning up adoptable highway segments across the state, according to ADOT’s Mary Currie, who oversees the Adopt a Highway program.
Currie is asking those participating in Saturday’s event to respect guidelines for social distancing during cleanups. She is also encouraging cleanup groups to tag @ArizonaDOT with the hagtag #NationalCleanUpDay on any photographs shared on social media from that day’s cleanup efforts.
Last year’s National CleanUp Day event netted 642 bags of trash along Arizona’s highway, totaling more than 4 tons.
Nationally, more than 23 billion pieces of litter are strewn across 8.3 million miles of roadway every year, equaling 2,855 pieces per mile. That presents about 73 littered items per person annually.
ADOT has released a short video about the state’s litter mitigation efforts: https://vimeo.com/528528195
