volunteers bag tons of trash

While walking along Ramblewood Drive, Andrew Ladanowski found a Canadian bill, drug paraphernalia, a suitcase, and a couch cushion. Discount Christian Louboutin

“There’s a lot of weird stuff out there,” he said.

For the past four years, Ladanowski, his wife, Csilla, and their two children have spent a few hours every three months cleaning up “their” road.

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They are volunteers with the Adopt-A-Street program, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Broward Beautiful. So far, 252 Broward streets have been adopted, covering 183 miles of county and city streets. Tiffany Jewellery

Since its beginning in 1995, more than 20,000 volunteers have picked up more than 230,000 pounds of trash in the county. Last year alone, they collected 23,657 pounds.

“It’s a lot of litter, especially if you consider what roadside litter is,” said Carrie Kashar, special projects coordinator for the Waste and Recycling Services of Broward County. “It’s cigarette butts, cans, pieces of paper.” links of london bracelet

The program continues to grow exponentially as the green movement inspires people to help their environment, said Carrie Kashar, special projects coordinator for the Waste and Recycling Services of Broward County.

Volunteers interested in adopting a street must sign a two-year contract agreeing to at least four clean-ups a year. They can choose an available street they wish to clean up; however, it must be at least a half-mile long and somewhat dirty.

“We always have some streets open,” Kashar said.

Volunteers are given safety vests, trash bags and all their cleaning equipment. When they finish, a city public works truck picks up their bags, she said. True Religion bags

“It’s about changing behaviors,” Kashar said. “We want people driving by to see those cleaning up. It’s more about litter prevention than litter removal. Hopefully, it will change those littering behaviors in people who think that is acceptable.”

Ladanowski said he thinks it is working.

“Knowing that someone in the neighborhood is cleaning up the street, you kind of get the feeling that the neighbors appreciate it,” he said. “If I keep the road clean, it has a tendency of staying clean. It seems like people don’t want to be the first ones to drop their trash.”