Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup^™ Kicks Off in Sacramento

Keep California Beautiful Launches National GAC Program with California Campaign

Movers and shakers from the government, nonprofit and private sectors came together at the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento today to launch the Great American Cleanup™ campaign for a litter-free California. Their goal is to collect litter, save taxpayer dollars, and recycle more trash in California.

Keep California Beautiful (KCB) and Keep America Beautiful (KAB) coordinated the national launch. Both KCB and KAB are dedicated to engaging people who want to improve their community environments. Following California, the campaign travels onward to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago. 

“Littering, illegal dumping and overrun landfills will spoil our quality of life here in California if we don’t work together to prevent these bad things from happening,” said KCB Executive Director Christine Flowers-Ewing.  “We’re addressing these problems by partnering with the people in California who are working hardest to help collect litter and make our state more beautiful.”

Flowers-Ewing was joined by representatives from the California Highway Patrol (CHP), 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 (ACC).

Last year, more than 8,500 people were ticketed by the CHP for littering. Fines reached up to $1,000 with 24 hours of community service. “We write a lot of citations for littering, but we wish we didn’t have to write any,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “We would prefer that motorists would respect California’s roadways and do their part to keep them litter-free.”

People pay for the collection of litter with their state taxes. “Caltrans spent more than $62 million last year picking up litter and debris,” said Caltrans Director Will Kempton. “Yet the Adopt-A-Highway program at Caltrans mobilized more than 4,100 volunteer groups that collected trash saving the department $15 million.”

National Cleanup Launch

All levels of government are affected by litter problems. 

“Local jurisdictions are spending hundreds of millions of dollars dealing with problems associated with illegal dumping,” said California Integrated Waste Management Board Chair Margo Brown. “Both local and state agencies can cite persons who are caught dumping trash illegally.”

California State Parks hosted the national launch event at its historic site in Old Sacramento. “We deal with trash coming from 76 million visitors annually to State Parks,” said California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman. “Since we are required to divert a high percentage of this trash from landfills, it’s important that our visitors place their recyclable materials in the proper bins.”

Representatives from the private sector said they also are serious about the proper collection of trash especially if it is recyclable. “Plastics are too valuable to waste,” said ACC Director of State Affairs Tim Shestek. “We want to see valuable plastics in recycle bins, not in trash bins headed for landfills.”

In addition, the Progressive Bag Affiliates, a member of the ACC and the California Film Extruders and Converters Association, donated 50,000 recycling/trash bags and 50,000 car-litter bags. The car-litter bags were distributed as part of the ongoing campaign to keep California litter-free beyond collection day.

Additional litter collection and beautification activities occurred in other regions of California including Glendale, Los Angeles, San Jose, Chico and San Rafael.

Huell Howser, host of public television's California's Green," emceed the launch event. Nearly 200 volunteers were in attendance. They were dispatched after the ceremony for beautification efforts along the American River Parkway. Staff from the American River Parkway Foundation and the Sacramento Tree Foundation coordinated the efforts along the river. Other same-day litter collection and greening activities in the Sacramento area included the collection of compact fluorescent bulbs and tubes for recycling at IKEA and the collection of polystyrene, cell phones and hospital blue wrap for recycling and document shredding at Raley Field.

Barry Caldwell, Chairman, KAB

“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 participating in 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.”

These activities in Sacramento were supported through partnerships with VikingShred; Timbron; and staff from the cities of Roseville and West Sacramento, Sacramento County Regional Parks, and Yolo County. To support green living and individual consumer behavior, Holy Cow distributed cleaning products at the event and Save Mart provided reusable shopping bags for customers in its 17 Sacramento-area locations.

For more information about the work of Keep California Beautiful, go to http://www.keepcaliforniabeautiful.com/.