Three years after the city of El Dorado launched a formal litter reduction program there’s a measurable improvement in the city’s appearance.
The group Keep El Dorado Beautiful, part of the Keep America Beautiful organization, carried out its annual litter index survey. Volunteers went ward by ward scanning street after street to count the amount of trash they saw and assigning it a numerical value. Keep El Dorado Beautiful executive director Alexis Alexander says the volunteers found little trash, but they noticed something else on the streets.
“There were people out in their yard picking up. We saw a group at a local church that was picking up trash in their parking lot. There wasn’t any sort of unified effort in town to have a community cleanup like we’ve done before. These people were just trying to make their town look good,” Alexander said.
The litter index survey calculated a 50 percent reduction in the amount of litter compared to the city’s first survey carried out two years ago. Alexander credits a robust education effort, especially in schools.
“It just takes one person not to throw something out of their car window and for another person to see a clean street they’re driving down and decide that they’re not going to throw something out of their window either. We hope that that’s contagious in our community,” Alexander said.
The city is preparing to place special trash and recycling bins in all the parks and playgrounds, according to Alexander. Keep El Dorado Beautiful received the national organization’s highest award this year for its efforts in the program.
