Saturday is Juneau’s annual cleanup day

Litter Free Cleanup Day 2012
Volunteers collected about 20,000 pounds of trash during Litter Free’s 2012 Cleanup Day. Photo courtesy Litter Free, Inc.

Break out the yellow and green trash bags, because Saturday is Litter Free’s annual Cleanup Day in the Capital City.

Randy Hurtte is a board member for the Juneau nonprofit, which has been organizing the event every May for almost 30 years.

“The main thing is, it’s a public cleanup, not really a time to clean out your garage and toss it out on the curbside,” Hurtte says. “But really a public area, so we’ve got people that are every year hitting their favorite trail heads, the streets in front of their house, and really trying to just get the whole town picked up.”

Litter Free provides the trash bags – yellow for regular garbage and green for recyclables – at various places around town.

The cleanup starts at 8 a.m., and wraps up around noon. Hurtte says volunteers can leave full bags on the side of any major road and Litter Free will collect them and take them to the dump.

“All the tons and tons of garbage that we pick up, Waste Management accepts that without any fee or charge,” says Hurtte. “So, it’s been a great community-wide effort.”

Once again this year, the Juneau Watershed Partnership will hold a volunteer picnic from noon to 1:30 at Duck Creek Market.

Since 1985, Litter Free has picked up nearly two million pounds of trash during its annual cleanup days. That’s according to board president Laurie Sica, who keeps official statistics. Last year was kind of a light year, likely due to heavy rain and wind. Still, in 2012, volunteers gathered about 20,000 pounds of trash.

Litter Free Bag & Sign-Up Stations:
-Foodland parking lot
-Douglas Fire Hall
-Western Auto Marine
-Lyle’s & Jensen’s Home Furnishings
-Super Bear Supermarket
-Duck Creek Market
-UAS Student Bookstore
-Lynn Canal Fire Station

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