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Keep Evansville Beautiful hosting a ‘Litter-Free-Evansville’ litter cleanup this Saturday

The non-profit organization has recovered thousands of bags of trash through the years.
Keep Evansville Beautiful
/
WNIN
The non-profit organization has recovered thousands of bags of trash through the years.

This program started as a joint program through the mayor’s office called ‘Clean Evansville;’ KEB taking over from Mayor's office

This cleanup will run from 9 a.m to 11 a.m.

Everyone is meeting at the Ruler Foods parking lot on Green River Road to clean lots and sidewalks down to Covert Avenue. Necessary tools and supplies will be provided.

Julie Welch is the executive director of Keep Evansville Beautiful. She said this location was chosen as a ‘hotspot’ because of accumulating litter.

“There are several throughout the city and so we've targeted one at each of our cleanups and in the coming months.” There are six more cleanups planned — one every other month to October 2023.

Welch said excess litter sends a bad message to anyone visiting the community. If not managed it can discourage investment and even a good quality of life.

“And if you don't have this, it really turns people off that might want to invest in that community,” she said. “As far as housing, if you live in a neighborhood where there's lots of litter, your property values go down by as much as 9-percent.” Welch said seeing litter makes others more likely to litter as well.

Technically this is their inaugural ‘Litter Free Evansville' event. It’s being taken over from a Mayor’s office collaborative activity formerly called ‘Clean Evansville.’

When Mayor Lloyd Winnecke opted not to run for Mayor again, Keep Evansville Beautiful took the program over completely according to Welch.

“So we decided to rename it as ‘Litter Free Evansville.’ And we're going to start out with every other month in the city. And we decided to hit areas that are kind of hotspots for litter in the city as something new.”

She said discarded plastic straws, bottles and food wrappers will be picked up by the bagful.

“We have gone into different areas and gotten hundreds of bags of litter, unfortunately off the streets. And then we've gone to different areas and gotten maybe you know 30 to 50 … I would say we'll probably have a large amount because I don't think this area has been hit for a while.”

Welch says thousands of bags have been plucked from the streets by the non-profit which she says was actually started by concerned business leaders in the ‘70s for the expressed purpose of cleaning up trash.

Today Keep Evansville Beautiful has expanded its vision along with city cleanup.

Future Litter Free Evansville Events

December 39AM-11AMS. Green River Road to CovertMeet at Ruler’s Parking Lot on S. Green River Rd.
February 49AM-11AMWest Franklin St., Fulton to St. Joe.Meet at Library on W. Franklin
April 19AM-11AMGreen River Road, Lloyd North to Morgan Ave.Meet at Donut Bank on Green River Road, near Lloyd
June 39AM-11AMFirst Avenue, Diamond to Buena VistaMeet at Wal-Mart on First Avenue
August 59AM-11AMN. Main St. to ColumbiaMeet at McDonalds on North Main
October 79AM-11AMBurkhardt, the Lloyd to Morgan AveMeet at Wal-Mart on Burkhardt, West side of parking lot