Texas Trash-Off Countdown in Carrollton

Dallas County welcomed many special visitors to the Commissioners’ Court this month, and they all had one common purpose: to Keep Dallas County Clean & Beautiful. Welcoming the delegation, Commissioner Ken Mayfield noted, “By focusing on beautification, litter prevention, and waste minimization, we will continue to encourage the public, Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates, and other grassroots organizations to continue their important work.”

Ruthe Jackson, Grand Prairie Mayor Pro Tem, has led the “beautiful” delegation for 33years of continuous recognition. March 1st through May 31st is a time to think about beautification. Keep America Beautiful sponsors the “Great American Clean-Up” and Keep Texas Beautiful has the “Don’t Mess With Texas Trash Off”, Earth Day and Arbor Day tree plantings.

Last year during the Great American Cleanup, 1069 Keep Carrollton Beautiful volunteers spent 4,840 hours collecting 16,850 pounds of litter and debris from green belts, streets, parks, rivers and shorelines in Carrollton. They are planning their fifth annual participation now.

“We all have a civic responsibility to participate in the education of our children, neighbors and the general public to nip climate change in the bud. Each act of community service shows each individual can make a difference in their own community,” said Sharon Goddard, Keep Carrollton Beautiful.

Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup is the nation's largest community improvement program. In 2007, the hardworking volunteers donated more than 7.7 million hours to clean, beautify and improve more than 17,000 communities during more than 30,000 events in all 50 states and beyond. Last year’s program netted 200million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic (PET) bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.

Trash-Off is a partnership between the Texas Department of Transportation and Keep Texas Beautiful. It was created to encourage Texans to refrain from littering and clean up roadsides. The 22nd annual Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off is the state’s largest one-day cleanup event. City-by-city across the state, the Texas Department of Transportation hopes Texans hear the call to action to volunteer for the annual Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off.

Locally, Keep Carrollton Beautiful is holding it’s Great American Cleanup/Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off on Saturday, April 19th. Go to www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org to register your family, your group, your troop or your business. All Adopt-A-Spots will be cleaning; most of the schools; neighborhood groups, too. Get your group together and cleanup Carrollton with them!
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