Great American Cleanup 2008 was a terrific success!

A clear and sunny day allowed more than 2,300 volunteers to clean up and green up parks, playgrounds, shorelines, roadways and more on April 19 during the 15th Annual Great American Cleanup.

Preliminary results show that volunteers cleaned more than 87 miles of streets, 312 acres of parks, 21 miles of hiking/nature trails, 12 playgrounds and community recreation areas, 41 miles of shorelines and waterways and 19 acres of wetlands. An estimated 67,509 pounds of trash was collected during the clean sweep. In addition, volunteers planted 153 trees, 199 flowers/bulbs and eight packets of sunflower seeds.

Volunteers of all ages arrived at 8:30 a.m. on April 19 and cleaned 44 locations throughout the county until noon. The cleanup is part of a national effort through Keep America Beautiful to spruce up and improve communities.

In addition to the cans, bottles and cigarette butts, some of the more unusual items volunteers found included three bowling balls, an alive and dead chicken, vacuum cleaner, dental supplies and lots of tires.

Shimberg Park in Town ‘N Country boasted the highest turnout with 336 volunteers, mostly from Morgan Woods Elementary who participated the week of the cleanup. They collected an estimated 1,000 pounds of trash. In addition, 36 volunteers from Lake Heather netted the most trash with a whopping 7,300 pounds of litter and debris.

Last year, more than 2,036 volunteers along with Adopt-A-Road groups picked up 62,040 pounds of trash.

In addition to collecting trash, Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful partnered with local law enforcement agencies to tackle litter at its source. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City police departments were out in force issuing warnings and citations for litter. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reported 108 traffic stops, 12 citations and one felony arrest during the Great American Cleanup for litter-related violations.

KHCB also distributed envelopes with postage paid by Sprint to recycle old cell phones. Proceeds from the recycled cell phones will benefit the non-profit organization. KHCB will continue to offer pre-paid envelopes to mail their cell phones through the end of the year.

“Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful would like to thank all our volunteers for their hard work and our funding partners and sponsors for their support,” Commerce said. “This event wouldn’t be made possible without them.”
For more information on KHCB and its cleanup efforts or to recycle cell phones, please visit www.khcbonline.org or call (813) 960-5121.