Tennessee Begins Huge Litter Clean-Up with $3.8 Million Funds
Governor Bredesen said in the announcement, "Each year volunteers pick up nearly 25.5 million pounds of roadside litter. Litter is an eye-sore, it's costly to clean up and is harmful to our environment, but it's totally preventable."
As stated, the grants to help clean up litter would be distributed over a specific amount of time. Additionally, the grants will be given out annually as well to every single county.
"These funds will be used by counties across the state to organize their pick-up efforts as well as educational campaigns to teach children and adults about the importance of keeping Tennessee beautiful," added the Governor.
Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Nicely also commented on the grants: TDOT awards approximately $3 million each year to help local communities in their efforts to stop litter in Tennessee.
However, many residents were concerned about where the grant money was coming from, to which Nicely assured, "These funds are obtained through the collection of a specialty tax on the malt beverage and soft drink industry through the Litter Grant Bill which was enacted by the General Assembly in 1981."
Some counties will also receive more money than others. The money alloted depends on the size, the number of roadway miles, and the population in each individual county.
Additionally, the grants have strict guidelines. The money must go for little clean-up efforts and for litter prevention education programs within each county. The funding for the educational aspect of the effort can go towards programs in schools as well.
So far, Tennessee's StopLitter campaign has helped remove 25.5 million pounds of garbage from the sides of 292,000 miles of county roads and 45,000 miles of state roads as well. With the new county grates, the state of Tennessee believes that those numbers could easily increase or possibly double within the next year.
More information about the StopLitter campaign and the clean-up grants is available at the following web site: www.tennessee.gov/tdot/environment/beautification/littergrant.htm. Additionally, the state is encouraging residents to contact their local governments to see how they can get involved in little clean-up in their areas.
Source:
Tennessee.gov. "Governor Bredesen Announces $3.8 million in Litter Grants for Tennessee Counties." info.tnanytime.org/tngov/
Published by Rachel Bogart
I'm a college student from the Chicago suburbs with a passion for environmental issues. I've had my writing featured on the front page of Yahoo! and have had my work included in the EPA's Science Matters new... View profile
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I'm glad part of the funds will be used to educate children about littering. We need to do more. I'd like to see the soda, beer and fast food suppliers put on their containers to recycle and not litter. We need to add more taxes to the purchase of the items like sodas and beer for picking up litter.
Here's my blog: www.planettrash.wordpress.com
See, this is a great example of the great things Governer Bredesen is capable of when he isn't wasting money on sending the State Tobacco Gestapo into Kentucky and Virginia to arrest Tennessee motorists and impound their cars for exercising their constitutional rights to free interstate commerce (that is, buying cheaper cigarettes someplace else).