Theodore Lai (right) of Phi Theta Kappa’s Beta Alpha Phi Chapter of Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, N.J., coordinated a Great American Cleanup beach cleanup with community college colleagues.
to recycle, plant trees and flowers, as well as educate thousands of others about how to preserve and protect the environment. In all, 3 million volunteers dedicated over 6.7 million hours of work in 17,000 communities with 30,000 Great American Cleanup events taking place throughout the country.
Flowers-Ewing was joined by representatives from the California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, California Integrated Waste Management Board, California State Parks, state Department of Toxic Substances Control, Federal Mid-Pacific Region of the Bureau of Reclamation and the American Chemistry Council demonstrating how important partnerships are to making these integrated community improvement efforts successful. Additional litter collection and beautification activities occurred on the launch date in other regions of California including Glendale, Los Angeles, San Jose, Chico and San Rafael.
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“Keep America Beautiful is proud that so many volunteers from California’s public and private sectors are joining millions of volunteers across the country by coordinating their efforts with our 2008 Great American Cleanup,” said Barry Caldwell, chairman of the Board of Directors of KAB and senior vice president for government affairs and corporate communications for Waste Management, Inc. “It’s this type of civic leadership and volunteer enthusiasm that encouraged KAB to coordinate its nationwide launch with Keep California Beautiful.” The campaign that has helped to clean up and beautify America for more than 20 years took on many different forms. While the major focus of many of the events was litter removal, many communities worked
From March to May, 144,000 miles of roads, streets and highways were cleaned and 91,000 acres of parks and public lands were beautified. Volunteers collected over 86 million pounds of litter and debris. Similarly, more than 107,000 trees were planted, 37,000 sites were removed of graffiti, more than 1,600 residential and commercial buildings were built, painted and or renovated and 48,000 gardens were created. The campaign also resulted in the collection of more than 5 million pounds of clothing for reuse by the needy as well as the recycling of more than 10 million pounds of aluminum and steel and more than 37 million pounds of newspapers. Over 200,000 adults and 430,000 children attended educational events aimed at teaching communities about the many ways we can conserve our resources.
5 milli of cl on p oth ound collecte s ing were dd the uring 200 American 8 great Cleanu p.