PA Environment Digest

PA CleanWays and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful are inviting all Pennsylvania schools and school districts to join in the exciting and renewed Pennsylvania Litter Free School Zone program.

The Litter Free School Zone program is designed to encourage students to keep their school grounds, campus, and neighborhood litter-free, and to raise public awareness regarding litter via a Litter Free School Zone sign to be displayed outside the school.

"The examples set by schools in our communities are important, and the Litter Free School Zone program is an opportunity to develop a school-wide stewardship ethic and also set an example for the school’s community," said Shannon Reiter, President of PA CleanWays and Keep PA Beautiful.

"We all know that the appearance of litter on the ground – no matter how it got there – reflects an aura of disrespect, disrepair, and neglect," said Reiter. "Regular maintenance is critical because one instance of litter encourages more litter to accumulate in the same area."

The Litter Free School Zone program strives to resolve the issue of littering in two ways:

-- Cleanup: Remove existing and deposited litter as soon as possible after it appears so that further littering will be less likely to occur; and

-- Prevention: Create a sense of understanding, caring, and responsibility, often described as environmental stewardship, in our children so that they will not think of littering as an acceptable behavior in their world.

“The ultimate goal is a cleaner, more beautiful community, with a strong sense of civic pride. As more students participate in the Litter Free School Zone program, we hope that there will soon be less litter to clean up,” explains Reiter. “As residents drive past the signage and see the clean schoolyard, they also will be less inclined to deposit litter.”

Since 2007, 100 schools have signed up for this program. One of the changes made this year was to make this an ongoing rather than an annual sign-up program.

School administrators and teachers are urged to visit the PA CleanWays Litter Free School Zone webpage to learn more about the program, register your school’s participation, and check out PA CleanWays’ educational materials.

For more information, contact Susan Carmichael toll free at 1-877-772-3673 ext. 107 or send email to: scarmichael@pacleanways.org.

Recently, PA CleanWays and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful formally joined forces to promote illegal dump cleanups, anti-litter education, and beautification projects to make their work with local partners and volunteers more effective.

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