Registration is Now Open for 2011 Great American Cleanup of PA

GREENSBURG — Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, formerly PA CleanWays, announced that registration is now open for the 2011 Great American Cleanup of PA. Event coordinators can visit the new Great American Cleanup of Pennsylvania Web page, www.gacofpa.org, to register their event.

This annual event is held in conjunction with the Great American Cleanup of Keep America Beautiful and in partnership with support from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, PennDOT, and PA Waste Industries Association.  Additional partnering businesses include Keystone Sanitary Landfill, PA Beverage Association, Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, Steel Recycling Institute, Waste Management, and the American Chemistry Council.

The 2011 Great American Cleanup of PA will begin on March 1st and end on May 31st.  During this period, registered events can get free bags, gloves, and vests from PennDOT district offices.  Events consist of litter cleanups, illegal dump cleanups, beautification projects, special collections, and educational events.

Events must be registered through the Great American Cleanup of PA website, www.gacofpa.org, to get these free cleanup supplies. As part of this event, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and PA Waste Industries Association are sponsoring Let’s Pick It Up PA – Everyday.  During the Pick It Up PA Days, registered event coordinators will be able to take the trash collected during their cleanup to participating landfills for free disposal.  The Let’s Pick It Up PA – Everyday event will begin on April 16th and end on April 30th.  The focus day will be April 23rd.

All 67 counties in Pennsylvania were represented in the 2010 Great American Cleanup of PA. There were 4,822 events with 186,487 volunteers. Volunteers collected 603,537 bags of trash or 12,070,740 pounds. They cleaned 19,373 miles of roads, railroad tracks, trails, waterways, and shorelines, and 6,027 acres of parks and/or wetlands. Additionally, volunteers planted 21,605 trees, bulbs, and plants in an effort to keep Pennsylvania beautiful.

Since the inception of this event in 2004, over 54 million pounds of litter and waste have been removed from Pennsylvania’s landscape, and tens of thousands of trees, bulbs, and flowers have been planted.

To register your event, find an event near you, or to find additional resources on the Great American Cleanup of PA, go to www.gacofpa.org.  Any additional questions can be answered by Michelle Dunn, Great American Cleanup of PA Program Coordinator, at 1-877-772-3673 ext. 113 or mdunn@keeppabeautiful.org.

About Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s mission is empowering Pennsylvanians to make our communities clean and beautiful.  Since 1990, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and its volunteers have removed almost 80 million pounds of litter from Pennsylvania’s roadways, greenways, parks, forests, and waterways.  To learn more about Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, visit www.keeppabeautiful.org.

About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of more than 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments. To learn more about Keep America Beautiful, visit www.kab.org.