In 2021, over 107,700 pounds of litter was collected within Hall County by a local non-profit, Keep Hall Beautiful, and over 48,800 pounds were within the Gainesville city limits.
“That is actually collected off of roadsides and out of the lake itself. So that could be anywhere from just your basic trash to the trash out of the lake, which could be a large float,” Executive Director for Keep Hall Beautiful, Shanda Sexton said.
Keep Hall Beautiful is a non-profit organization that focuses on environmental awareness and stewardship. It started in the early 70s as one of the first Georgia chapters to become a Keep America Beautiful affiliate. They are also a certified state affiliate with Keep Georgia Beautiful.
“We really wanted to get on board. We knew there were some issues here in Hall County at the time that we really felt needed to be looked into more, along the lines of litter and illegal dumping,” Sexton said.
In 2021, the organization also discovered and cleared 15 illegal dumpsites. An illegal dumpsite is clarified as a dump site that is not a landfill. It is usually an area of space with mattresses, couches, tires and other household items, according to Sexton. Keep Hall Beautiful usually clears the dumpsites through volunteer clean-ups.
Sexton said these volunteer clean-ups are some of the many ways Keep Hall Beautiful is working to foster a healthy and balanced community people would want to live in.
“I mean, it's the health in general and we have a landfill but we only have so much space in that landfill. We want to try to recycle as much as possible because [we are] not really sure how much more space in Hall County there is for another landfill,” Sexton said.
The organization has several projects planned for 2023 including Sweep the Hooch, an annual day of service to the Chattahoochee River to remove trash and the Great American Cleanup, an event held throughout April with multiple community clean-up days.
Keep Hall Beautiful plans to also expand its outreach program into the school systems.
“You start with the younger kids and typically they are the ones that go home to mom and dad and they convince them to start recycling,” Sexton said.
To get involved with Keep Hall Beautiful, visit their website keephallbeautiful.org.
