HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and PennDOT teamed up with the Harrisburg Community Correction Center on Tuesday for a volunteer litter clean-up downtown.
Approximately 20 volunteers, including reentrants, pitched in for cleanup along Cameron Street in Harrisburg.
“It's important that we're good neighbors in our community, and it's important for our residents that they can get out and participate," Kelly Evans, deputy secretary for Reentry, Pa. Department of Corrections. said. "It makes them involved, and most of them enjoy coming out and giving back."
Litter cleanup events present an opportunity for reentrants to perform important community service, while saving taxpayer dollars that would have been spent cleaning up our roadways, officials say.
"Every dollar we have to spend on litter cleanup is a dollar we cannot invest in our system," PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian said in a recent press release.
Since April, there have been nine similar cleanup events across the Commonwealth, and more are scheduled throughout the summer months. This collaboration came from a recommendation in the Commonwealth's first-ever Litter Action Plan released in Nov. 2021.
PennDOT says roughly $14 million is spent annually on statewide litter cleanup. Programs, such as Adopt-A-Highway, allow businesses to volunteer to sponsor cleanup and beautification on roadways across Pennsylvania.
Safety materials were provided to the volunteers, which included roadway signage, safety vests, gloves, and bags. PennDOT has also agreed to dispose of the trash, organizers say.