04/22/24 - 117 New Stories - REAL Environmental & Conservation Leadership In PA: http://tinyurl.com/9bh4zbtr
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Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority Receives National Award From Keep America Beautiful
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The Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority received a Keep America Beautiful National Award for the work they did to rid Lebanon County of illegal dumpsites. The Authority was nominated for the award by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.
The National Award was accepted on behalf of the Authority by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful at Keep America Beautiful’s National Conference in New Orleans, LA, at their Awards Banquet on November 30th, 2011. Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful presented the award to the Authority at their board meeting on January 4th.
(Photo: Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Program Manager Todd Crouch Presents GLRA Chairwoman Roberta DeSantis the Award.)
The Keep America Beautiful National Award honors outstanding projects and programs concentrated in litter prevention, beautification, and waste reduction and recycling throughout the nation. The Authorities nomination placed second in the waste reduction and recycling category.
Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful contacted the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority in the summer of 2009 to introduce their Illegal Dump Survey Program and to see if the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority would be interested in doing the illegal dump survey in Lebanon County. The Authority was eager to participate and do the survey which was funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
Over several months, the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority drove 2,566 miles documenting illegal dumpsites. There were 43 dumpsites identified containing an estimated 36 tons of trash.
The Authority has a strong presence throughout the County. It was not a surprise then when they solicited volunteers through their county-wide newsletter to cleanup these sites that volunteers came knocking. Six months after the survey release in June 2010 the Authority and its volunteers and fellow residents had cleaned up every site in the survey at least once. In total they picked up 28.36 tons of trash and 1,500 tires.
The Authority’s proactive work regarding illegal dumping in their county did not end when each of the dumpsites from the survey were cleaned. Unfortunately, there is still active dumping occurring in the county. The Authority has promoted the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Adoption Program and the PennDOT Adopt-A-Highway Program for volunteers, groups, and organizations to adopt the sites from the survey so that they remain clean.
The Authority is also working to identify and apprehend those dumping with landowners and other law officials. The Authority has surveillance cameras that are rotated around various dumping areas identified in the report to catch dumpers and the cameras are checked routinely. The have caught many people dumping and have tried to prosecute them all.
“The Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority demonstrated a model for how to utilize the illegal dump surveys at the local level- how to successfully work with municipalities, partnering agencies and organizations, and volunteers to address illegal dumping in their communities,” says Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful President Shannon Reiter. “We are very happy that Keep America Beautiful recognized their great success.”
“Personally, and on behalf of the Authority, the previous Executive Director, and the volunteers who performed this project, it is an honor to receive this recognition, “says GLRA Executive Director Larry Taylor. “Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful was instrumental in bringing this project to a successful completion and we appreciate them nominating the Authority for this award. It was a nice effort and we hope the dumping will stop and the areas will remain clean.”
For more information on dump site surveys, reducing illegal dumping and beautification initiatives, visit the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful website.
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1/16/2012 |
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