Litter Education & Awareness

CASE STUDY: Clermont County

Clermont County’s Clean and Green program is the result of a unique collaboration between organizations and communities dedicated to creating a cleaner Clermont County. After conducting a countywide litter summit, the Clean and Green program was assigned the task of implementing the Clermont County’s litter prevention plan, which serves the county’s population of almost 200,000.

Litter summit participants worked closely with the Recycling and Litter Prevention Program to promote the campaign. During the first 18 months of the campaign, nine articles regarding litter issues and cleanup events appeared in local newspapers.

In addition, the county solid waste district purchased collapsible trash containers with the “Clean and Green” logo to use at special events, including the county fair and volunteer clean-ups.

Numerous awareness and education outreach efforts were conducted, including the publication of a Waste Disposal and Recycling Guide, which was distributed to new residents and businesses.

A display was also erected to increase awareness of the problems of cigarette butt litter. The display, posted at a major road intersection, consisted of a five-foot acrylic tube completely filled with cigarette butts! The cigarette butts were all litter collected from county roadways by community service crews. There are now plans to erect similar displays throughout the county and at the annual county fair.

As the public became more interested in the county’s new litter prevention initiatives, membership in the litter prevention collaborative increased. This led to the growth of the county’s Adopt-A-Spot program. To date, more than 100 businesses have agreed to Adopt-A-Spot in their community. Volunteers commit to cleaning their adopted stretches of highway twice a year.

In April 2003, the collaborative sponsored its most successful neighborhood cleanup event ever. A total of 515 volunteers, plus community captains, gathered to clean up their community at a record 13 locations. Volunteers picked up an estimated 750 bags of trash plus four truckloads of tires and appliances during the day.

Trash collected in the cleanup included this
old refrigerator!

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