Adopt a Highway Earth Day event helps keep Arizona grand

PHOENIX – Not a bad Earth Day’s work. 

Thirty-one volunteers dedicated Tuesday morning to a special Arizona Department of Transportation Adopt a Highway event in Tempe. As a result, Loop 202 (Red Mountain Freeway) right of way in the Salt River bed is grander to the tune of 49 large bags filled with litter, several shopping carts, three electric rental scooters, yards of metal pipe and much, much more. 

This event, also held to mark National Volunteer Week, was a chance to showcase the value ADOT Adopt a Highway volunteers bring to state highways throughout the year. In 2024 alone, these volunteers removed 10,400 bags of litter while contributing 17,891 hours of labor worth $538,000.

There’s room for you among the hundreds of groups and thousands of volunteers behind ADOT Adopt a Highway. Civic-minded individuals, families, religious groups and others may receive two-year permits to clean up roadside litter on highway segments, usually a mile in each direction and largely in rural areas, that are deemed safe for volunteers. 

Groups agree to pick up litter in an adopted stretch at least once per year and preferably three or more times a year. They coordinate with ADOT to arrange for safety vests, litter bags and training for pickup events and then report the results. 

Each adopted stretch has a recognition sign bearing the Adopt a Highway group’s name.

For more information and to join our Adopt a Highway family, please visit azdot.gov/adoptahighway.