The Great American Cleanup Is Going on Now!

Featured in Friends & Neighbors of Martin County by Tiffany Kincaid

Gathering with friends, working up a sweat, and improving our neighborhoods---it’s time once again for the Great American Cleanup.

All across the country this spring, volunteers will be out in force to clean up parks, paint old houses, repair dilapidated fences, and pick up trash from beaches, roadways and other public areas.

In Martin County, the Great American Cleanup is coordinated by Keep Martin Beautiful, our local nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and enhance the quality of life in Martin County through litter prevention, waste reduction, beautification and community improvement, and environmental stewardship education.

It’s easy to be a part of this great event. On your own, or with a group, all you need to do is:

• Pick a location. A park, a beach, a roadway, or anywhere in your neighborhood that could use some care.
• Choose a date and time. Anytime between now and June 20 counts as part of the 2022 Great American Cleanup.
• Spread the word. Send your cleanup info to Keep Martin Beautiful, with any flyers or graphics, so we can share on social media and in e-mail blasts.
• Ask us for supplies. Keep Martin Beautiful can provide volunteers with garbage bags, gloves, and pick-up sticks.
• Get to work improving your community! Be sure to take pictures and share them with Keep Martin Beautiful via email and through social media so we can acknowledge your efforts and inspire others to participate.

If you have a project in mind but need more volunteers, let us know. Keep Martin Beautiful can help match up people who would be happy to help. A list of events and activities can be found on our Keep Martin Beautiful website.

The project could be close to home, helping an elderly neighbor paint their house, repair an old fence or clean up the yard.  Or it could be a bigger community cleanup where volunteers might be needed for removing exotic vegetation or planting flowers and trees. Maybe you’d like to organize a household hazardous waste removal day in your neighborhood, and we can help you coordinate with the HazMobile - Martin County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection vehicle.  

Our local Great American Cleanup has truly had an impact in Martin County. During the last five years, about 7,500 volunteers removed over 167,000 pounds of litter, debris, exotic vegetation and hazardous waste materials -- saving the county more than $350,000 in taxpayer dollars.

We hope you will join us and be part of this year’s Great American Cleanup. No meetings, no dues, no lengthy reports - just community-minded citizens making Martin County a better place to live through simple acts of volunteering. To get started, simply go to our website or call us at 772-781-1222.