The core focus of Keep Monroe County Beautiful will be on improving communities by promoting proper handling of waste and recycling, preventing litter and illegal dumping, fostering community stewardship through volunteer engagement and recognition by educating youth and the public about litter, waste, and recycling, and by keeping our communities looking clean and green.
Pickup PA also known as The Great American Cleanup
Pickup PA runs nationally every year from March 1st to May 31st. This program encourages groups of all kinds to pick up litter and illegal dumps in communities across the United States. Supplies will be provided to groups that register as a participant.
International Costal Cleanup
International Coastal Cleanup is similar to the Great American Cleanup; however, it focuses on costal water protection and runs in the Autumn season from September 1st to November 30th. The focus is on coastal waters with an emphasis on picking litter on any roadway. As we know, litter will find its way into our creeks, streams, rivers, and oceans utilizing the storm water runoff systems used to control flooding. Supplies will be provided to groups that register as a participant.
Education & Youth Programs
Keep Monroe County Beautiful will provide educational programs and resources on protecting the environment to create a direct impact on changing behaviors and attitudes towards becoming stewards of the environment.
Illegal Dumping Cleanups and Free Landfill Disposal Program
This program is designed to attack illegal dumps that gather in remote areas within communities. Funds are available to provide county wide illegal dump surveys to identify and promote volunteers to remove and dispose of properly. Grants are available to provide resources to remove large and hard to access dump sites. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful had produced an illegal dump survey in Monroe County, PA in 2011 identifying 61 illegal dump sites. The Waste Authority made it a priority to have all 61 dump sites removed within a year of receiving the survey by utilizing grants, volunteers and other forms of encouragement. We have continued to identify and encourage clean-up of illegal dump sites and have had many successful prosecutions of illegal dumpers when identification was possible.
Land Stewards Road and Area Adoption Program
The Land Stewards Road and Area Adoption Program partners with other governmental entities to provide litter cleanup of adopted parks, adopted roadways and adopted communities. Keep Monroe County Beautiful will help get state roads adopted for litter collection through Penn Dot’s Adopt-a-Highway Program. There are many state roads that have been historically adopted, but for many reasons, the adopters no longer pick litter as promised. The Keep Monroe County Beautiful affiliate will work with Penn Dot and other groups to identify roads in need of new adoptions. This method of adoptions can be used for municipal parks, neighborhoods, and other areas in need of litter clean up.
Cigarette Litter Prevention
Cigarette butts are the most frequently littered item along Pennsylvania’s roadways according to a 2020 Pennsylvania Litter Study. Lack of awareness that cigarette butts are a form of litter, lack of ash receptacles and the increase of outdoor smoking adds to the cigarette litter problem across the state. Through grants and outreach, Keep Monroe County Beautiful will provide the necessary awareness and education to help reduce cigarette litter. Cigarette butt canisters can be placed in high volume areas to help reduce cigarette litter. These canisters were placed in 14 state welcome centers and 41 state parks leading to a litter reduction rate of 64%.
Community Greening & Beautification
One of the best ways to keep MOnroe County, Pennsylvania looking nice is to beautify it. When our community’s outdoor spaces are made more welcoming to residents, they become less attractive to litter and dumping. Community Greening and Beautification can be done by reclaiming vacant lots for gardens or plantings, repainting historic buildings or churches, cleaning up and adding plantings to playgrounds and ballfields and other public locations, planting native trees and shrubs along streams and other areas prone to flooding and dumping.
