MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) – Berkeley County received $10,000 in grant money to improve community litter cleanup on Tuesday.
The grant will go towards community cleanups of roadways and boat landings and supply items such as litter pick-up sticks, safety gloves and safety vests. Keep Berkeley Beautiful was awarded the funds and wants to empower community leaders to improve recycling and litter pick-up.
Keep Berkeley Beautiful is an affiliate of the national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful which focuses on cleaner communities and a sustainable approach to the environment with 700 affiliates nationwide.
The PalmettoPride organization offers grant funding annually to Keep South Carolina Beautiful affiliates and the Berkeley County group received the full amount this year.
Keep Berkeley Beautiful Director Sarah McCarthy-Smith said the group has great volunteers and community leaders already stepping up to the plate with over five cleanups already scheduled this month. The Highway 45 cleanup, St. Stephen’s community litter sweep and the Russellville boat landing opportunities are events volunteers can look forward to this month.
“We have a lot of great volunteers and community leaders who have stepped up and see a need in their community as far as litter goes and picking up litter in their communities and creating opportunities so that others can get involved as well.” McCarthy-Smith said.
South Carolina’s Adopt-a-Highway program is a part of the litter clean-up movement. McCarthy-Smith is also the Adopt-A-Highway coordinator for Berkeley County. The Adopt-a-Highway program agrees for volunteer groups to clean up litter along two miles of highway four times a year for two years at a time. Groups get their organization recognition on highway signs in exchange.
McCarthy-Smith said the goal is to keep roadway and boat landing cleanups sustainable and the county’s boat landings are a great place to get involved as cleanup has more of an impact than people think.
“We’ve got a lot of these landings, you know the litter starts at the roadways, it gets into the ditches, the ditches run into the streams, the streams run into the rivers and the rivers run into the lakes and the lakes run into the oceans,” McCarthy-Smith said. “If we can stop the litter before it even gets into the ocean by picking it up from the streams or from the lakes or even from the roadway..we can make a big difference before it even gets to the ocean.”
McCarthy-Smith says Berkeley County is a big place with lots of roadways and waterways to clean that everyone can be a part of.
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