It’s a social event where groups can have fun, get exercise, enjoy the outdoors and make a tangible difference in Tweed by committing to pick up litter two times a year on a 2 km section of provincial highway. Groups can mean anything from families, businesses, civic organizations, clubs, schools, scout groups, book clubs etc. However, for safety reasons, no one under the age of 12 may participate and there must be one adult (19 or older) for every five volunteers between age 12 and 18. High school students can even use the time spent towards their 40 hours of community service
required for graduation.
Contact Denice Wilkins at tweedgreenup@yahoo.ca to find out more or get involved!
Five reasons to get involved:
1. Help is needed
Success of the Adopt-A-Highway program is directly related to the number of groups who unite together to help.
2. Accountabilty
You don’t litter, but unfortunately others do.
3. Community involvement
Take pride in Tweed and meet others who care about keeping it beautiful. Lead your children by example.
4. Have fun, get exercise and get outdoors!
Gather your friends, family, co-workers, students and enjoy the day outside while doing something that makes a tangible difference!
5. Get your name in lights
After your first pick-up, MTO will put up a sign at both ends of your group’s 2 km section which reads: Keep Ontario Beautiful – This section of road adopted by (group name). Solar energy and car headlights illuminate the signs that tell everyone you have community spirit and care about the environment.
Adoption rate soars
The number of groups adopting a section has grown from six last year to 11 this year! Tweed Green-Up, Hastings, Prince Edward Green Party, St. Carthagh Catholic School, Tweed Hungerford Senior School and Friends of Nancy Newman have joined Centre Hastings Secondary School, the Tweed Lions Club, the Rashotte Family, the Unconventional Moose, Tim Horton’s of Tweed and Wilson’s Organic Blueberries to “adopt” a 2 km section of Highway 37 or 7. With only seven of the 2km sections in the municipality left, sign up your group soon so you don’t miss out on this fine opportunity for fun, exercise and community involvement! Centre Hastings Secondary School and the Green Party are such keeners that they are also adopting additional sections on Hwy 62!
“Bank” deposits poised to rise
Don’t forget that now you can not only return beer bottles and cans for 10 cents each but wine and liquor containers (glass or plastic) will fetch 10 to 20 cents each depending on size. Obviously, we are not in favour of drinking and driving, but if the bottles are out there, the best thing to do is recycle them. Returning these empties will eliminate thousands of glass bottles from being stockpiled in the Tweed dump and they will now be reborn as new glass bottles, fiberglass, polar fleece and other high-end items. If your group would like to donate your “bank deposits” (returnable containers) to Tweed Green-Up, we would put the money to good use on more environmental projects in the community.
Adopt-a-Highway program fights climate change
Every tonne of cans recycled saves 3.6 barrels of oil. Every single aluminum can recycled saves enough energy to power an average television for 108 minutes. Every glass bottle recycled saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours! So why just do the environmental, community-service minded task of picking up trash when you can fight climate change too? Let’s stop dumping energy in the landfill! It’s easy! Have people work in pairs so one can have the bag for garbage and the other the bag for recycles plus a separate bag designated as “the bank” for returnables.
