Volunteers will be out along Michigan roads this weekend as part of an Adopt A Highway cleanup. Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Dan Weingarten tells us more than 2,900 community groups statewide are part of the program to pick up trash along roads.
“60,000 to 70,000 bags of trash on an annual basis over those three pickups, and that’s roughly $5 million of labor, just in terms of the personnel hours that are put into the trash pickup,” Weingarten said. “So, it’s a huge benefit to the state. That’s money that the department really doesn’t have in outs maintenance budget.”
Weingarten says Adopt a Highway started in 1990, and now covers more than 6,000 miles of state roads. Drivers are advised to watch out for the volunteers starting this Saturday. They’ll be wearing vests. You can find out more about signing up a group of your own at Michigan.gov/AdoptAHighway.
