Summer Adopt-A-Highway Litter Pickup Begins July 13

Motorists should be on the lookout for Adopt-A-Highway volunteers picking up litter along state highways beginning this Saturday. Participants in the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Adopt-A-Highway program will be cleaning up highway roadsides from July 13 to 21, the second of three scheduled pickups this year.

State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle said "with no increase in transportation funding since 1997, every dollar counts. Adopt-A-Highway volunteers provide a financial lift for MDOT and our state performing needed work that we otherwise couldn't fund."

In 2012, Adopt-A-Highway volunteer groups reported collecting 65,000 bags of trash, a cost benefit to the state of $5.6 million. MDOT provides the volunteers with safety vests and trash bags for free, and arranges to haul away the trash.

Volunteers include members of various civic groups, businesses and families. Crew members have to be at least 12 years old and each group must number at least three people.

Sections of highway are still available for adoption. Interested groups should check out the MDOT webpage here. Groups are asked to adopt a section of highway for at least two years. There is no fee to participate and an Adopt-A-Highway signs bearing the group's name are posted along the stretches of adopted highway.

This year's final Adopt-A-Highway will be in the fall from September 21 to 29.