The Great American Cleanup (GAC) is the nation’s largest community improvement program, taking place annually from March 1 through May 31. Volunteer groups and individuals of all ages are invited to register to participate in the event, which mobilizes thousands of Texans to improve the beauty and health of their community. Activities can include beautifying parks and recreation areas, cleaning waterways, handling recycling collections, picking up litter, removing graffiti, planting trees and conducting educational programs and litter-free events — anything that keeps your community beautiful!
The Great American Cleanup is part of a nationwide effort with Keep America Beautiful that kicks off in more than 20,000 communities each spring. Any Texan can participate in the Great American Cleanup! Online registration is now available at www.ktb.org for local organizations to schedule events in their communities and gain access to valuable resources to plan, promote and host an event. Participants are encouraged to register their GAC events with Keep Texas Beautiful in order to receive trash bags, volunteer giveaways, promotional items, and more, to assist in facilitating their cleanup event. Participants may also elect to post their event information on the Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) event calendar. KTB will be leading individuals and community groups looking to volunteer to the KTB event calendar to find an opportunity in their area.
In 2016, 105,814 Great American Cleanup volunteers across Texas:
- Contributed 462,315 volunteer hours
- Collected 8.5 million pounds of waste and recyclables
- Collected 1.6 million pounds of tires
- Collected over 443,000 pounds of electronics
- Held multiple awareness events and workshops, abated graffiti, painted and repaired buildings, installed community gardens, planted flowers and trees and cleaned illegal dumping sites
Keep Texas Beautiful: Keep Texas Beautiful, the statewide grassroots environmental and community improvement organization and affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, educates and engages Texans to take responsibility for improving their community environment. KTB and its more than 390 affiliates work with government, businesses, civic groups, and volunteers to ensure that every Texan has the opportunity to help make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation. For more information about KTB, visit www.ktb.org, follow us on Twitter at @keeptxbeautiful and like us on Facebook at @keeptxbeautiful.