KTCB ProgramsKTCB provides and participates in many community programs in an effort to educate the public, reduce litter, promote waste reduction through recycling and composting, beautify the community and conserve water.
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Y.E.S. - Youth Environmental Stewardship
The Y.E.S. Initiative aims to educate, engage, and empower students who make a difference in their school through student-driven environmentally conscious programs.
Y.E.S., managed by Keep Thomas County Beautiful, identifies and celebrates schools in Thomasville and Thomas County that have:
We are very excited about our fourth year of Y.E.S. schools and hope to reach as many students as possible, impacting the next generation of leaders about recycling, reducing litter, beautifying your environment and conserving water. Our board members are eager to share their passion with the schools and students and are ready to visit with student clubs and organizations to review potential projects. Official designation as a Youth Environmental Stewardship school will be issued in April during Earth Week at a celebration at Thomas University.
Y.E.S., managed by Keep Thomas County Beautiful, identifies and celebrates schools in Thomasville and Thomas County that have:
- At Least 30% of students who pledge to become more environmentally conscious.
- At Least two or three Y.E.S. Champions
- One student club, organization or class to serve as the Y.E.S. student leadership team.
- At least one annually reviewed project in keeping with KTCB's mission: litter reduction, recycling, beautification, and/or water conservation.
We are very excited about our fourth year of Y.E.S. schools and hope to reach as many students as possible, impacting the next generation of leaders about recycling, reducing litter, beautifying your environment and conserving water. Our board members are eager to share their passion with the schools and students and are ready to visit with student clubs and organizations to review potential projects. Official designation as a Youth Environmental Stewardship school will be issued in April during Earth Week at a celebration at Thomas University.
Adopt-A-Spot
Thomas County, the City of Thomasville and Keep Thomas County Beautiful are seeking volunteers to assist with keeping our community public spaces clean and maintaining the beautiful landscape that is south Georgia. The goal of this program is to inspire individuals to take greater responsibility for creating a clean and beautiful community through litter prevention and community beautification.
- Almost any spot can be adopted - near schools, library sites, residential common areas, parks.
- Adoptee's maintain their spot by keeping it free of litter and debris on an ongoing basis for a minimum of one year.
- Spot maintenance takes approximately two to three hours per cleanup, including the time it takes to file a cleanup report.
Bring One For the Chipper - Christmas Tree Recycling
Christmas Tree Recycling is held in conjunction with the Department of Community Affair's Keep Georgia Beautiful "Bring One for the Chipper" program. The event date varies each year, but is usually the 1st or 2nd Saturday in January. You can support the Chipper program by bringing your undecorated, cut Christmas tree to the West Remington Recycling Center. The mulch from these trees is used for playgrounds, local government beautification projects and individual yards.
Great American Cleanup
Keep America Beautiful' s Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest community improvement program, engaging more than 5 million volunteers and participants every year to create positive change and lasting impact in local communities.
Entering its 23rd year in 2021, the Great American Cleanup offers structured service projects – experiential environment education, organized volunteer events and employee engagement opportunities in communities across the country. The Great American Cleanup® unifies and beautifies communities across the country in a grassroots spring-cleaning movement.
The Great American Cleanup® prompts individuals to take greater responsibility for their local environment by conducting grassroots community service projects that engage volunteers, local businesses and civic leaders.
Entering its 23rd year in 2021, the Great American Cleanup offers structured service projects – experiential environment education, organized volunteer events and employee engagement opportunities in communities across the country. The Great American Cleanup® unifies and beautifies communities across the country in a grassroots spring-cleaning movement.
The Great American Cleanup® prompts individuals to take greater responsibility for their local environment by conducting grassroots community service projects that engage volunteers, local businesses and civic leaders.
Community Appearance Index
The Community Appearance Index (CAI) is intended to help quickly and reliably assess the litter situation in our communities and to assist in achieving long-term, sustainable results to help end littering. There are three ways to volunteer:
- Drivers (must be a licensed/insured driver with own vehicle)
- Navigator (maps and directions provided)
- Scorer (rates how much litter is on the road).
Litter Cleanup Assistance Program
Do you want to make an impact on your community? Would you like to organize and hold a litter clean-up event? We hope you will consider organizing a cleanup in your neighborhood, near your business, at a local park or on a littered roadway. Cleanups can be of any size, but remember the more people that are involved the bigger the impact you can make.
KTCB can help promote your event on social media and would also highlight your clean-up event and recognize your efforts in our Leaders Against Litter Spotlights on Social Media and our Website.
KTCB can provide guidelines and support to help ensure a safe and successful event that benefits our community and natural environment. Supplies we can provide for your cleanup include garbage/recycling bags, bag holders, gloves and safety vests. We can also assist with coordination of pickup of the litter you collect with the City of Thomasville, Solid Waste. Contact the KTCB Office at ktcb@live.com for additional details and planning.
KTCB can help promote your event on social media and would also highlight your clean-up event and recognize your efforts in our Leaders Against Litter Spotlights on Social Media and our Website.
KTCB can provide guidelines and support to help ensure a safe and successful event that benefits our community and natural environment. Supplies we can provide for your cleanup include garbage/recycling bags, bag holders, gloves and safety vests. We can also assist with coordination of pickup of the litter you collect with the City of Thomasville, Solid Waste. Contact the KTCB Office at ktcb@live.com for additional details and planning.
Library Litter Pick-up Kits
The Library Litter Pick-up Kit program started as a pilot, running through August 2020. KTCB & The Thomasville Library System teamed up to provide Litter Pick-up Kits available for check-out by anyone with a library card. The kits contain bag holders, litter grippers, bags, safety vests and disposable gloves. Due to its success, it is now an ongoing program. During the programs first two months 13 kits were used by 22 people who collected over 39 bags of litter.
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program
Keep America Beautiful provided individual merit-based grants, totaling more than $500,000, to 47 organizations throughout the country, including Keep Thomas County Beautiful. Grants were presented to Keep America Beautiful affiliates, local governments, business improvement districts, downtown associations, parks and recreation commissions, and other organizations dedicated to eradicating litter and beautifying their communities. Communities implementing the CLPP in 2019 reported an average 51 percent reduction of cigarette litter.
As part of the 2020 grant program, Keep America Beautiful is focusing on three primary types of cigarette littering interventions. Applicants will have the opportunity to focus on cigarette litter reduction through public messaging, infrastructure placement, or a combination of both.
“The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grants empower communities to help mitigate the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life impact of cigarette littering,” said Jerred Jones, program director for the CLPP. “Access to ash receptacles and the dissemination of public education are useful tools to help reduce the most commonly littered item in our litter stream.”
The CLPP, created by Keep America Beautiful in 2002, is the nation's largest program aimed at eliminating cigarette butt and cigar tip litter. Since its inception, the program has been successfully implemented in more than 1,800 urban, suburban, and rural communities nationwide. Over the past decade, participating communities have consistently cut cigarette butt litter by 50 percent based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after program implementation.
Research has shown that even self-reported “non-litterers” often don’t consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground to be "littering." Keep America Beautiful has found that cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points—areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants, among others.
As part of the 2020 grant program, Keep America Beautiful is focusing on three primary types of cigarette littering interventions. Applicants will have the opportunity to focus on cigarette litter reduction through public messaging, infrastructure placement, or a combination of both.
“The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program grants empower communities to help mitigate the economic, environmental, and quality-of-life impact of cigarette littering,” said Jerred Jones, program director for the CLPP. “Access to ash receptacles and the dissemination of public education are useful tools to help reduce the most commonly littered item in our litter stream.”
The CLPP, created by Keep America Beautiful in 2002, is the nation's largest program aimed at eliminating cigarette butt and cigar tip litter. Since its inception, the program has been successfully implemented in more than 1,800 urban, suburban, and rural communities nationwide. Over the past decade, participating communities have consistently cut cigarette butt litter by 50 percent based on local measurements taken in the first four months to six months after program implementation.
Research has shown that even self-reported “non-litterers” often don’t consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground to be "littering." Keep America Beautiful has found that cigarette butt litter occurs most often at transition points—areas where a person must stop smoking before proceeding into another area. These include bus stops, entrances to stores and public buildings, and the sidewalk areas outside of bars and restaurants, among others.