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Workgroup Continues Focusing on Single-Use Plastic Reduction Toolkit |
The Trash Free Texas team from the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Houston-Galveston Area Council invites cities, restaurants, third-party delivery providers, chambers of commerce, and restaurant patrons to participate in the next meeting of the Trash Free Texas Single-Use Plastic Reduction Workgroup on from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday, November 7, on Teams.
The purpose of this meeting is for you to provide feedback on two draft toolkits--one for cities and one for restaurants-- that include resources, templates, and strategies for voluntarily reducing the use of single-use plastics in restaurants. About 10 to 14 days prior to the meeting, the Trash Free Texas project team will email the draft toolkits for your review.
If you can't attend the meeting but still wish to receive the toolkits for review, please click here to receive toolkits only. For this option, the instructions for providing feedback will come in the email with the two draft toolkits.
We look forward to meeting in November.
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Would you like to see your Adopt-A-Spot story featured in a future Spotlight? Click on the button below to complete a form and we'll share your story with the community. |
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Resources for Your Upcoming Cleanup Events |
The Trash Free Texas project offers resources to assist communities and organizations in planning and implementing successful litter cleanup and education efforts. If you plan to hold cleanup events or implement litter outreach in 2022, or want to explore new ways to engage volunteers in litter cleanup opportunities, be sure to check out these new toolkits.
The Recreational Litter Cleanup Toolkit provides resources to assist local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, and other entities interested in hosting recreational-driven litter cleanup events such as plogging, plalking, and pladdling, or creating educational campaigns to encourage these activities.
The Community Cleanup Challenge Toolkit provides resources to assist local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, and other entities interested in hosting litter cleanup events. While the resources are designed for a competition-style cleanup, many are helpful for planning and implementing standard litter cleanup activities as well.
The Local Government Trash Reduction and Education Toolkit is a consolidation of resources developed to assist local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, and other entities who are seeking to engage and educate their communities on the topics of watersheds, litter, aquatic debris, and cleanup initiatives. The toolkit includes videos, reports, infographics, links to existing campaigns, and more.
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Texas Litter Database User Survey Analysis |
Keep Texas Beautiful surveyed users of the Texas Litter Database to get user feedback and see where improvements might be necessary. They shared some analysis of the results in August, and a snapshot of some of the results are below.
- Survey respondents represented 62 different cleanup events.
- Over 91% of respondents did not experience issues logging in to the database.
- Only 36% had issues finding the event they wanted to report for in the database.
- Over 89% of respondents did not experience issues entering data.
- 75% of respondents found resources to assist partners with database use helpful.
- 45% of respondents have used the database to view or download existing data, and most liked the dashboard feature.
- Less than 30% of respondents participated in a trash audit, but over 85% would consider trying it. Those that did had positive, eye opening experiences, and used the results to determine where additional infrastructure, education, and cleanups were needed.
Based on results, the future improvement plan for the database includes items such as:
- Improving the event section to be easier to understand and utilize
- Improving the location section
- Creating a way to filter data before downloading
- Creating a way to batch upload data for organizations with large amounts of events or data
If you have not already, check out the Texas Litter Database and see how it can be a useful tool for your litter cleanups and data retention while also adding your event results to statewide totals. |
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Make Plans to Participate in KTB's Annual Fall Sweep - Now through November 20 |
Each year, Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) sponsors a Fall Sweep program to support the efforts of KTB Affiliates, nonprofits, volunteers, corporations, scout groups, and other community groups to organize fall cleanups and beautification projects.
Fall Sweep Cleanups scheduled in the region, include:
The deadline to sign up to host a cleanup event is October 31. More information about starting your own clean up (or finding one near you) is available on the KTB Fall Sweep web page.
If you are looking for new ways to engage volunteers in your litter cleanups, check out the Trash Free Texas toolkits for tips and resources to plan and implement different types of cleanup elements like community challenges or recreation.
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H-GAC Offers Shareable Recycling, Litter Reduction Social Media Posts |
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Galveston Bay Report Card Grades Health of Galveston Bay |
The Houston Advanced Research Center and the Galveston Bay Foundation recently released the latest Galveston Bay Report Card, analyzing and grading the health of Galveston Bay. Galveston Bay received a C for overall health with indicators including water quality, habitat, wildlife, human health risk, coastal change, and pollution events and sources.
While considered a component of pollution events and sources, litter and trash indicators do not have enough information available to make an assessment to affect Galveston Bay’s overall grade. More information about litter and trash and how systematic clean-ups and reduction could impact the health of the bay is available. |
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Drug Enforcement Administration Takes Back Prescription Drugs Oct.29 |
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 29. Check the DEA website in early October for area drop-off locations. The collection event provides a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications and environmental contamination. Law enforcement agencies interested in hosting a collection site should call the point of contact for this area.
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Celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15 |
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Do you have a trash clean-up or litter reduction project that’s coming up, ongoing, or recently completed? Ask for help or share your success with the Trash Free Texas Community by sharing in our quarterly update. |
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