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CHARLESTON — More than 8,500 volunteers removed 489 tons of litter from West Virginia’s landscape during spring cleanup programs sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Numbers were recently finalized for April’s Make It Shine and May’s Adopt-A-Highway cleanup efforts, which are administered by the WVDEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan program and focus on beautifying the state’s public lands.
“The dedication, hard work, and passion shown by our volunteers each year is truly amazing,” said REAP program manager Sandy Rogers. “West Virginians care deeply for their environment and we look forward to partnering with them next year as we continue working towards our goal of making our state the cleanest in the nation.”
The two-week Make It Shine cleanup (May 1-15) attracted 4,876 volunteers statewide. Close to 170 volunteer groups participated, cleaning 737 acres of public lands and 46 miles of streams. Volunteers removed just over 754,000 pounds of litter, while remediating 144 dumps, and collecting 1,850 tires.
The Adopt-A-Highway cleanup April 24 and was bolstered by 3,704 volunteers from across the state; 412 volunteer groups removed 214,000 pounds of trash and 456 tires from 1,081 miles of state roadways.
REAP, with the new motto is Keeping WV Clean and Green, was created in 2005 and strives to clean up West Virginia and rid the state of litter. The program empowers residents to take ownership of their communities by providing technical, financial, and resource assistance in cleanup and recycling efforts. More information is available at https://dep.wv.gov/environmental-advocate/reap/Pages/default.aspx.
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