Missouri Roadsides and Streams Get Spring Cleaning

During the month of April, Missourians took a few hours to help make Missouri beautiful as a part of the annual No MOre Trash! Bash.

Across Missouri, thousands of people picked up more than 81,000 bags of trash from Missouri’s roadways and streams, nearly ten thousand more bags than last year. Groups also picked up untold numbers of tires and other items too big to place in trash bags. Those who reported what they did received a No More Trash! lapel pin.

MoDOT districts hosted events or cleanups to help improve the view and spread the word.  In the St. Louis area elected officials helped MoDOT cleanup a section of Interstate 55 and kids who attended the Take our Children to Work Day were presented with eco-friendly messages. In the Northwest District several employees from the district office participated in a litter pick-up activity along one of the busiest interchanges in St. Joseph. MoDOT managers picked up trash in the Northeast District; employees handed out anti-litter info to motorists at local drive-thrus and they put the flower made from recycled signs up at the district office.

Cleanup crews included MoDOT crews, Missouri Department of Conservation Stream Team members and other employees, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers, incarcerated crews and countless others.

“Ultimately, we’d like to get people to stop littering altogether,” said Stacy Armstrong, Missouri Department of Transportation, roadside management supervisor. “We’re working with lots of young people now and they can help change the future to make Missouri litter free.”

The more than 3,700 Adopt-A-Highway groups and 3,502 Stream Teams volunteers spend countless hours on litter cleanup, but litter continues to line our roads and streams. With the money spent on litter cleanup, MoDOT could resurface many miles of roads, replace and repair bridges, improve habitats for wildlife and people and enhance parks and nature centers.

For more information about the No MOre Trash! Bash or litter prevention, visit our website at www.nomoretrash.org. Imagine a litter-free Missouri…No MOre Trash!