Hundreds of volunteers will be out along roads throughout Michigan starting this Saturday as part of the state’s Adopt a Highway cleanup program.
Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Dan Weingarten tells us more than 2,900 groups coming from businesses, churches, and non-profits are part of Adopt a Highway, pledging to be responsible for picking up trash along segments of state road near them. They pick up around 60,000 bags of trash each year.
“It’s millions of dollars of volunteering going into this effort every year too,” Weingarten said. “That’s money that if we were to try to do it within our maintenance budget, it would take money away from things like mowing the roadsides or snow removal in the winter. So, it’s work that we just would not be able to do under our current budgetary structure.”
Weingarten says Adopt a Highway has had strong participation since getting started in 1999.
Most of the routes available for the program are now spoken for, but Weingarten says groups interested in becoming part of Adopt a Highway can still reach out to their regional coordinator to find out if anything near them is still available.
With volunteers to be out along roads Saturday and the coming week, he asks drivers to be extra cautious.
You can find out more about the program at Michigan.gov/AdoptAHighway.
