Over 9,500 volunteers logged more than 31,000 man-hours to clean up 1,300 miles of roadways, 132 miles of stream, and 48 illegal dumpsites

CHARLESTON – More than 590,000 pounds of litter was removed from West Virginia’s public roads, highways, and streams thanks to volunteer efforts this spring as part of the state’s Adopt-A-Highway program, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (WVDEP) Make It Shine program.

Numbers were recently finalized for the Make It Shine and Adopt-A-Highway April cleanups. Both events rely heavily on volunteer efforts for their success and this spring, more than 9,500 volunteers participated in cleanups that yielded almost 300 tons of trash.

The Make It Shine cleanup ran the first two weeks of April and brought in 5,654 volunteers. They participated in 189 projects that removed 371,078 pounds of litter from 319 miles of roadway, 132 miles of streams, and 48 illegal dumpsites. They also collected 1,988 discarded tires.

The Adopt-A-Highway spring cleanup took place on April 27. A total of 3,881 volunteers representing 451 groups removed more than 220,000 pounds of litter and 481 tires from just over 1,000 miles of state roads and highways.

The WVDEP’s Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP) oversees both the Make It Shine and Adopt-A-Highway programs and would like to thank each and every participant this year for their efforts to keep West Virginia clean and beautiful.

For more WVDEP news and information, go to www.dep.wv.gov. Also, connect with the agency on all social media platforms. Follow @DEPWV on Twitter, Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/depwv/, and find us on YouTube at Environment Matters.