Have you taken a family walk around your neighborhood recently? You may have noticed that fast food drink cup acting like a tumbleweed blowing down the sidewalk. Littered items can turn your family walk from a beautiful, sunny stroll to a gray reality where a Green Team is needed.

Who is the Green Team? Your family can easily become your neighborhood’s Green Team and help save your neighborhood from litter bugs! In a few easy steps, you can turn your family cleanup into an eco-venture and invite neighbors and other community members to join in on the fun!

Create the Event

Talk to your kids about why you’re cleaning up the neighborhood and how they can help protect the environment by always recycling or throwing their trash away. Then, decide on a location, time and date. If you’re neighborhood isn’t in need of a cleanup, consider one nearby or a local park.

Make sure your kids are involved in the process by letting them design event flyers that they can pass out to friends at school or share on social media. Involve classmates, teachers, youth groups and family members to make it fun for everyone!

Visit KeepArkansasBeautiful.com to request free cleanup supplies, including T-shirts, trash bags, latex and/or cotton gloves and safety vests.

Make it Fun

Help volunteers to look for certain items by making a list of things that are considered litter, such as fast food containers, paper, cigarette and vaping packaging, or plastic bottles. A list is a great starting point, but make sure they pick up any trash they pass! You can even turn it into a game by offering a prize for the most items collected or the most unique piece of litter collected.

Make sure youth are grouped in teams with adults for safety and assistance as they’re picking up litter. Set a start and end time so that everyone gathers together and finishes up their trash collection together.

Wrap it Up

Have water and snacks waiting to say “thank you” to everyone who showed up! And make sure to bring hand sanitizer for everyone to use before eating.

Give out prizes such as ribbons or small gift cards to the winning participants in whatever contests you decided to have. And then, make sure to place all the trash that was collected with your weekly curbside pickup or contact your local solid waste district.

Help your child to write thank you cards to those who came out and joined your Green Team!

For resources to help get your eco-venture started, visit KeepArkansasBeautiful.com.