The Adopt-A-Road program in Palm Beach County works with local businesses to adopt a one-mile stretch of road to support the beautification of our community through litter removal. Each group that participates commits to cleaning their road 4 times per year, for a minimum of 2 years. One of the passions of our team at RLG, is to get involved with our community and keep it beautiful while helping the environment. As a result, the Palm Beach County Adopt-A-Road program was the perfect fit. Our team has committed to cleaning 2 stretches of roadway near our offices in West Palm Beach. Our attorneys, staff, and friends will be out on our adopted roadways once each quarter, making sure they are free of trash and debris.
Quarterly cleanup
The Romano Law Group team hosted our quarterly clean-up on Sunday, June 12th and collected over 20 bags of trash over the 2 roads that we adopted, a clear sign that the sidewalks need our help! It’s amazing how a few hours and a few sore muscles can make you feel more of a connection to your community. Several people stopped us along the sidewalk to ask what we were doing, stunned that we were helping. It takes all of us, to tackle community issues, including litter.
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During our cleanup, we found and rescued a newborn kitten, who was being circled by hawks. It was stuck back in the bushes and needed our help to get out. Our team rescued the kitten and took it to Peggy Adams Animal Rescue for evaluation and adoption. The kitten was so tiny it needed to be bottle-fed. Nancy Romano was the lucky one who got to be the surrogate mama.
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Doing What it Takes to Keep our Community Beautiful
Interestingly, a statistic from a Keep America Beautiful study showed that 81% of litter on the roadway is “notable” meaning that it was intentionally dropped, this was an alarming statistic to learn. Please help us in our mission by throwing all trash in designated trash cans.
In 2021, Keep America Beautiful released the largest study ever done on litter, including sources of litter and attitudes and behaviors that contribute to littering. Here are some of the findings of the study:
- In 2021 there were almost 50 billion pieces of litter along roadways and waterways in the US
- That breaks down to 152 units of litter PER US resident
- PPE is one of the largest problems currently, with over 201.1 billion items littered
- More than 2,000 pieces of litter per mile on US roads and waterways
Additionally, the source of most litter was motorists and pedestrians.
- Motorists not properly securing cargo accounts for over 50% of litter on roadways
- 95% of litter at transition points (areas where you need to discard items before entering) is from pedestrians
- 85% of littering is due to individual attitudes, therefore, changing attitudes and behaviors is a priority to reduce littering.
- Existing litter is a strong contributing factor, if there is already litter, people are more likely to litter.
We are proud of our commitment to our community and the environment. Join us on our next roadway cleanup, we are happy to have you. Or better yet, start your own initiative. Many hands make light work.
