PEMBROKE — The Robeson County’s Clean and Green Committee met Thursday to work out final details for Wednesday’s official launch of a countywide anti-littering campaign.
“We want everyone to comment because trash is everyone’s problem,” Commissioner Raymond Cummings, head of the coalition of education, business, government, church and community volunteers, said. “On July 1 we are going to get our message out to folks with a big splash. This event is a springboard to spawn concern about litter. It will get people to say enough is enough and we’ve got to do something.”
Wednesday’s kickoff is a community roadside cleanup. Volunteers will assemble and register for the event at 7:30 a.m. on the parking lot of the former Department of Social Services building on N.C. 711. Beginning at 8 a.m., the group will pick up trash on both sides of N.C. 711 from the former DSS building to Sentinel Fence. Trash will also be collected along N.C. 72, according to the event’s organizers.
After the cleanup, participants will return to the parking lot for refreshments.
During Thursday’s meeting at the office of the Lumber River Council of Governments at COMtech Park, about 20 volunteers also discussed how to make the clean and green effort present at large events, such as Lumbee Homecoming, that will be held throughout the county during the Fourth of July holiday.
The campaign is attacking the litter problem on the three-prong approach of education, prevention and enforcement.
A slogan, logo and web page focusing on the county’s clean and green efforts have been developed. Printed literature is starting to circulate throughout the county.
Education efforts will focus on the county’s young people when schools reconvene. Committee members decided on Thursday that there will also be clean and green representatives present at the large Back to School event held annually by the Public Schools of Robeson County, an event that each year draws several thousand students and parents. This year the event will be held on Aug. 6.
Committee members on Thursday also agreed to boost their efforts of getting the clean and green message out to the community by way of churches, local governments, and businesses.
Thomas Ammons, project manager for Environmental Hydrogeological Consultants in Red Springs, suggested that the campaign also move in the direction of cleaning up trash in waterways. He offered the use of his company’s resources, including boats, to help clean up areas in and around waterways where large amounts of trash have accumulated.
