Keep Mercer Clean campaign preparing for another year of service
Jan. 31—PRINCETON — An annual effort to clean litter from Mercer County's roadsides and remove trash and junk that could end up in illegal garbage dumps is taking shape for the 2022 season.
Love Where You Live, Keep Mercer Clean begins March 20 and continues until April 30 this year, according to Executive Director Greg Puckett of Community Connections, Inc. Part of this effort includes working with Mercer County Schools again this year.
"Right now, we're on a deadline for schedules," Puckett said. "We will do our partnerships with the schools this year to redo our Trash to Treasure campaign, and we haven't been able to do it for a couple of years because of COVID, but this year we're hopeful that we'll be able to do it again."
Students participating in the Trash to Treasure campaign use litter collected during Keep Mercer Clean to make works of art. Another part of Keep Mercer Clean involves organizing volunteers to pick up trash along the county's roadways. The annual campaign offers other ways citizens can clean up the trash around their communities.
This involves placing dumpsters at schools across the county. These dumpsters will be at the designated school every Saturday while the Keep Mercer Clean campaign is underway, Puckett said,
"We're going to do the traditional locations," he stated. "Those will be Oakvale, PikeView, Brushfork and Lashmeet/Mataoaka. and because we have five Saturdays instead of four, we're looking to secure a location at Spanishburg on the final Saturday."
On those Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon, county residents will be able to drop off their trash at the dumpsters free of charge, Puckett said.
"It's a cooperative effort with the schools and also with Lusk Disposal," he added.
An aluminum can drive will be another part of the school system's work with Keep Mercer Clean. Schools collecting the most cans will receive prizes ranging from $250, $100 and $50, Puckett said.
Out along the county's roads, volunteers will be picking up litter. The campaign will have plenty of trash bags and grabber sets for the effort, but the campaign's primary goal is education, Puckett stated. The emphasis is on the spirit of volunteerism.
In 2018, Love Where You Live, Keep Mercer Clean received an award from the National Association of Counties.
"That's what makes Keep Mercer Clean so special," Puckett said. "It's the people who work so hard to clean up the community, and this year we definitely need your support," Puckett said.
There is still plenty to trash to clean up every year, he added. One of the campaign's goals is to convince more people not to litter or dump their trash illegally.
"We've done a lot of continual trash cleanup. The education is so important. We won't have to work so hard if everybody does their part all the time, doesn't throw (litter) out and keep Mercer clean," Puckett said. "The campaign's full name is Love Where You Live, Keep Mercer Clean. We do love where we live and we have to treat it better than the way we do."
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
