Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful Teamed Up with Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources and Solid Waste Management to Host an Earth Day Recycling Event in April and Great Gwinnett Wetlands Cleanup in May
Lawrenceville, Ga. – May 13, 2021 – After a year that caused the cancellation of many of its planned events, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful (GC&B) – along with its partners at Gwinnett County’s Department of Water Resources and Solid Waste Management – really stepped it up in Spring 2021 by hosting two phenomenally successful back-to-back events. The first took place on April 24 at Gwinnett County Fairgrounds in celebration of Earth Day, while the other was hosted just one week later on May 1 at Lawrenceville’s Bethesda Park. The results for both events are in – spelling an incredible response from the community and the hard work of a dedicated team of volunteers.
2021 Earth Day Recycling Event: Hosted at Gwinnett County Fairgrounds, over the course of just three hours, Gwinnett County employees and 28 volunteers processed 1,115 vehicles, collecting 4,850 gallons of latex paint, 86 gallons of oil-based paint, and 147 gallons of aerosol paint. They also shredded 14.72 tons of paper and collected 6 tons of tires and 18.963 tons of electronics – roughly the weight equivalent of forty 1979 Volkswagen Beetles. Volunteers put in a combined 140 volunteer hours in the rain that day, and all materials collected will be recycled.
2021 Great Gwinnett Wetlands: Hosted at Bethesda Park for the first time in its seven-year history, this event served as a hands-on celebration of Water Professionals Day while promoting the stewardship of Gwinnett’s local wetlands. 76 volunteers removed invasive privet that choke out the health of the wetlands and collected 150 bags of litter, as well as 10 tires, a mattress, basketball goal, rebar, and a car battery. All combined, the litter removed from Bethesda Park in the wetlands that border Sweetwater Creek that day totaled 2,600 lbs. Among the volunteer groups were representatives from several local engineering firms including AECOM, Hazen & Sawyer, Columbia Engineering, Precision Planning, S&ME, Inc., Dewberry, Blue Cypress, Prime, Ardurra, Arcadis, HDR, Barge Design, and Brown & Caldwell.
“We could not have implemented two major events back-to-back like that if it weren’t for the dedication of the Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful team, our amazing Gwinnett County Partners at Solid Waste and DWR, our wonderful vendors and – of course – the incredible 104 volunteers who joined us those two weekends,” said Schelly Marlatt, Executive Director for Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful. “In addition to hosting events like these, it’s the mission of Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful to connect people and resources for a sustainable Gwinnett. This includes recycling, litter, stewardship and sustainability education. For instance, the best way to combat litter is to motivate people not to litter in the first place. That’s why we’re proud to support the efforts of Keep America Beautiful and their program ‘152 and You.’ A result of its 2020 definitive study of litter, Keep America Beautiful quantifies that if every American picked up 152 pieces of litter, our nation could be litter-free. We make it easy for Gwinnettians to do just that by offering volunteer opportunities like our Adopt-A-Road Program or Great American Cleanup where they can submit their own cleanup project in a part of the community that is near and dear to them.”
To learn more about Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful and its programs, please visit www.gwinnettcb.org. The next GC&B public event is a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day on July 22 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Gwinnett County Fairgrounds.
