City gets early start on 'trash bash'

The California residents got an early start, beginning the spring clean-up April 15, the first day of the 16th annual No MOre Trash! Bash which runs from April 15-May 15.

The local clean-up, which ended April 20, focused on household trash and unwanted and unneeded items. This includes general trash and rubbish, broken and unwanted furniture and anything cluttering up the premises.

According to Vic Maurer, the amount picked up in the cleanup of the City of California was 136.49 tons. That is about 273,000 pounds of unwanted, unneeded stuff or just trash.

The event for the Missouri Department of Conservation and Missouri Department of Transportation encourages people throughout Missouri to focus on "spring cleaning" the outdoors. People are asked to pick up litter across the state from roadsides, parks, neighborhoods, rivers, streams, trails, and other places. Some of the area roads are cleaned of litter on a regular basis by volunteers through the Adopt-A-Highway program.

The city clean-up and the state outdoors clean-up can be connected, since it is not unknown for some of the household items to find their way to the roadside, rivers and streams. Trash Bash activities also include various educational efforts in schools, community events, and Earth Day celebrations around the state.

Each year, MoDOT spends about $6.75 million to remove litter from more than 385,000 acres of roadsides along 34,000 state highway miles. Annual volunteer efforts to pick up litter along Missouri highways are valued at more than $1 million. Last year, volunteers collected more than 43,000 bags of litter and several truckloads of debris during the spring No More Trash! Bash. People also attended numerous educational events that stressed the importance of not littering.

Volunteers also participated through Adopt-A-Highway and Stream Team litter cleanup events. Missouri Stream Team Program volunteers removed 547 tons of litter from waterways and dedicated more than $2.3 million worth of volunteer time to litter removal statewide annually.

Volunteers are needed across the state this year to participate in litter cleanup activities. Participants can report their cleanup efforts and will receive a No MOre Trash! thank-you pin. For more information, visit nomoretrash.org, or call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (1-888-275-6636).