Adopt a Highway: What it's like to join a cleanup event
Adopt a Highway: What it's like to join a cleanup event
We post quite frequently about our Adopt a Highway program on our social media pages, so I wanted to get a first-hand experience of what the process is like and share it for anyone who might be curious.
First, someone must choose a section of highway to adopt. Then, start putting together a group and making sure they all have the important safety materials to review. It doesn’t take too long, I promise (and the video is more entertaining than you might expect!).
I joined a group led by fellow ADOT Communications employee Steve Elliott, who adopted a section of State Route 87 north of Loop 202 Red Mountain in Mesa (you may have seen a blog he wrote about it recently).
ADOT supplies the safety vests and trash bags, all you need to bring is a group of volunteers (although bringing water and certain gear, like gloves and grabbers, is recommended).
Now, you pick up the litter, and who knows what you may find! You could find a $20 bill or someone’s lost cellphone like a group in Congress did a few years ago. Some groups even hold fun contests for who can find the oddest item, like an authentic cannonball, for example.
This was the second cleanup event Steve was holding, so there wasn’t as much trash for us to collect as there had been a few months earlier when the group filled more than 20 large bags with trash. The most interesting thing I found was probably an unidentified animal skull and a pair of socks.
The last step is to place the full trash bags by the side of the road for ADOT to pick up and report back with how much was collected. And then you celebrate a job well done! Whether you do this with a post-cleanup nap or a BBQ, like Steve’s group did, is up to you.
An important thing to remember is that keeping Arizona highways clean starts with drivers! The leading cause of trash on the highway is people throwing their trash onto the highway and failing to secure their load.
You can help Keep It Grand by encouraging others to not litter, keeping a small trash can or bag in your car to store trash until you can properly dispose of it, and of course, adopting a highway.
Below is a video that offers a glimpse of what it was like being out along the highway. And if you’re not ready to commit to your own section of highway just yet, some ADOT volunteer groups hosts occasional cleanup events that you can join, like the annual “All the Way to the Border” events.
The next ADOT-hosted volunteer highway cleanup will take place near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Monday, April 22, during National Volunteer Week. You can learn more and register here.