VALDOSTA, GA. (WTXL) — If you've ever driven down a Valdosta backroad and watched a food wrapper or ice bag skitter across the ditch, you're already inside the story that neighbor Russell McBride has been trying to tell.
- Valdosta’s monthly Great American Cleanup aims to stop roadside trash before it reaches creeks and rivers.
- Environmental volunteers like Russell McBride say post-storm cleanups have dramatically reduced debris flowing into storm drains.
- Watch the video below to see how neighbors and city officials are helping out.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
For Russell McBride, a Brooks County resident and weekend kayaker, the roads aren’t just roads. They’re gateways to the Withlacoochee River, to One Mile Branch, to Sugar Creek. And every loose cup, Styrofoam box, or storm-scattered scrap sitting on the pavement has the same destination if no one grabs it first: downstream.
He remembers exactly what it looked like after Hurricanes Idalia and Helene.
“After the hurricane, it was trash, I mean, everywhere. So we've made a lot of headway, and these cleanups are really helping out. If you clean up the right-of-ways, the trash has no way to get into the storm drains.”
That’s the mission behind Valdosta’s Great American Cleanup, a monthly effort to stop litter long before it hits the waterways this city is built on.
Russell sees what ends up in his WaterGoat almost every day.
“Styrofoam, plastics…it all comes from people tossing it out on the roads or in a parking lot.”
This weekend’s cleanup is part of a larger environmental comeback for the city. Public Works brings the gloves, vests, and litter grabbers, but they say the real force behind this movement is everyday people who love where they live.
“We feel it's important to get the community involved because we have more citizens than employees, and the more citizens we have out there helping us, it will go a lot farther as far as keeping the whole city," Valdosta Public Works Administrator Larry Ogden said.
The cleanup runs Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. Here's further details:
Meeting Spot: 1905 N Ashley St (Family Dollar)
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