Volunteers pick up 6.7 million pounds
of trash
More than 132,000 volunteers from every county
in Pennsylvania removed 6.7 million pounds of trash from roads,
parks, schools, waterways, wildlife areas and communities statewide.
“The 2006 Great Pennsylvania Cleanup was
another fantastic success,” Environmental Protection secretary
Kathleen A. McGinty said. “My thanks go out to every volunteer,
and to everyone who organized a cleanup.”
The Great Pennsylvania Cleanup is a statewide
effort to remove litter and trash and to beautify the commonwealth
through efforts such as planting trees and building playgrounds.
Statistics of the 2006 Great Pennsylvania Cleanup
follow:
- 5,689 cleanup events.
- 132,245 volunteers.
- 312,396 bags of collected trash, weighing 6,247,917 pounds.
- 460,000 pounds of illegally dumped trash and 11,000 tires collected
by volunteers in DEP’s Clean Up Our Anthracite Lands and
Streams (COALS) program.
- 13,811 miles of road, railroad track, trails, waterways and
shorelines cleaned, and 2,470 acres of park and/or wetlands.
- 1,068 communities involved, and all 67 counties in Pennsylvania.
Additionally, volunteers planted 22,270 trees,
bulbs and plants.
The Department of Transportation and its Adopt-A-Highway
volunteers again played a key role in making the Great Pennsylvania
Cleanup a success. Other key partners include the Pennsylvania Waste
Industries Association and the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association
and the Pennsylvania Soft Drink Association, whose members provided
refreshments at many of the events. |
