“Trash or Treat” with Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - As we’re approaching Halloween and the holiday season, you might be seeing more trash around your neighborhood. Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful is encouraging you to pick up that trash, and they’re even offering the supplies.

“It’s all in the name,” says Adam Cassi, Executive Director for Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful. “First we got to make it beautiful, and then we have to keep it that way.”

And that’s a year-round job. Cassi explained, “It’s a problem that everyone needs to take accountability for. It’s not just a problem for somebody else to clean up, We need everybody to do their part, and the first part is, don’t litter.”

But it does happen. Cassi told 13abc that a recent study found that “90 percent of Americans feel that litter is a problem in their community.”

And Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful is helping you to change that by offering the tools to clean up.

“You can make a request for litter tongs and gloves and bags, that way we supply you with all the supplies that you’ll need,” Cassi explained. “And you can do what we’re calling a “trash or treat”.

That means candy wrappers are the focus, and it’s most important now to try to pick them up.

“Eighty-eight percent of all litter is smaller than four inches. The number one thing that is still littered is cigarette butts. But a close second is actually candy wrappers and other small film and plastic film-like candy wrappers. That litter really moves pretty easily. A little bit of wind, a little bit of rain, and it’s going to end up in our river and out into our lake.”

But the wrappers and trash you pick up this month will have to go in the trash.

Cassi explained that candy wrappers found on the ground are dirty and considered garbage. But if a wrapper is from freshly eaten candy, it can be recycled. “Once Halloween is over, and you’ve got a lot of candy wrappers, take them to your local YMCA. We’ll have boxes out to collect all the candy wrappers for recycling. You can’t put them in your normal recycling, but we’ll send them to a special processor.”

If you’d like to request some supplies, you can visit the KTLCB website. Other recycling programs for campaign signs and pumpkins are slated for the coming months. You can keep up on those on the Keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful Facebook page.

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