Pick Up America is a local, regional, and nationwide initiative committed to reducing plastic waste in our communities and waterways. The Pick Up Artists will coordinate community trash clean-ups while walking across the country to encourage alternatives to our nation’s throwaway mentality. The two year trek began on March 20, 2010 from Assateague Island, MD., and will span 13 states to the San Francisco Bay, Calif., sometime in November 2011.

There are 7 volunteers who are doing the entire cross country walk. Along the way, many local volunteers walk along, help pick up and bag the trash. The bags are left alongside there road where the following day, the state’s highway DOT will come by and pick up the bags.

The volunteers seperate the garbage as they go into recycling items which are taken to the local recycling areas. Each bag is weighed so they will have a total amount of trash picked up by the end of their journey.

Most common item is platic bottles, followed by cans, plastic bags and beer bottles. Also common are tires… everywhere.

Mission: Walk across the country, pick up trash, and inspire a transition to zero waste.

One of the goals is to help connect the churches with businesses with students and with environmental organizations. The biggest item is to help build coalitions pushing towards zero waste. To help transition where we are at a place where we’re not taking resources straight from the earth, using them once, then landfilling them.

Most importantly, Pick Up America is trying to get people to understand why we are producing so much trash in the first place.

Let’s all work together in transitioning to a country of zero waste.

Thank you, Pick Up America, for helping build awareness towards our environment and waste problems.

To read more about them, please click here to go to their site/blog, pickupamerica.wordpress.com

Published by Michelle

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