Juneau residents on Saturday picked up tons of trash — over 12 tons, to put a finer point on it.
Organizers reported that a total of 24,365 pounds of litter were removed from public lands and waterways during a communitywide cleanup spearheaded by Litter Free Inc., a local nonprofit. That total includes hundreds of pounds of recyclables, including 45 pounds of glass, 90 pounds of plastics and 130 pounds of aluminum.
[Everybody do your share: Community takes part in annual cleanup]
Catherine Berry, 6, places litter in a bag held open by her mother, Mary, during a communitywide cleanup held on Earth Day. The cleanup of public lands is an annual event organized by Litter Free Inc. (Ben Hohenstatt / Juneau Empire)
The amount of litter collected is up considerably from last year when the community hauled in 14,000 pounds of trash, according to Laurie Sica, Litter Free Inc. president. The total number of volunteers was up to 785 this year from 600 last year, too.
An exact reason for the hefty, hefty, hefty increase isn’t immediately clear, but Sica said in a message that opportune timing and weather may have played roles.
“I can only guess that the coincidence of our cleanup landing on Earth Day, and the weather cooperating, and some great volunteers that got the word out really helped,” Sica said. “We are already planning for next year, so stay tuned.”
• Contact Ben Hohenstatt at bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com or (907)308-4895. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
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