Keep Ohio Beautiful

Serving the people of Ohio

Keep Ohio Beautiful's Board of Directors are proud to share our 2011 Annual Report...Enjoy!

2011 Keep Ohio Beautiful Annual

Environmental Law Enforcement Training Workshop to be held in Columbus on Wednesday, July 18 

Keep Ohio Beautiful (KOB), a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, will be hosting an Environmental Law Enforcement Training Workshop in Central Ohio on Wednesday, July 18 from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm at the Chief James G. Jackson Columbus Police Academy 1000 North Hague Avenue Columbus, Ohio  43204, Room 104.  The cost for the training workshop is FREE; thanks to funding received from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Recycling & Litter Prevention.

An informative workshop for Law Enforcement Officials, Sanitarians, Solid Waste Management
Districts, Environmental Managers, Prosecutors, and Decision Makers basic training on topics that include how to respond when confronted by environmental crime scenes involving environmental enforcement, case studies, illegal dumping, scrap tire dumping, and the safety surrounding of meth labs.

The workshop provides attendees with important information regarding the laws and effects that littering, including illegal dumping and scrap tire dumps, has on the quality of life and the money it costs.

WHY ATTEND?
· To bring environmental crime impact to the attention of the local judicial system and identify resources for improving local enforcement programs
· To network with others involved in environmental enforcement.
· To identify resources for improving local
enforcement programs
 
AGENDA TOPICS
· What is an Environmental Crime?
· Dangers at Environmental Crimes Scenes
· Meth Lab Training
· Environmental Enforcement
· Hazardous Materials
· How to Form a Local Environmental Coalition & Community Policing BMP’s
· Plus Many More Topics...
 
For more information and a Registration Form please CLICK HERE. 

Environmental Law Enforcement Training Workshops to be held:
Toledo - Wednesday, September 26 = Lucas County EMS Training Center
Mentor - Wednesday, November 7 = TBD

Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful Joins Forces with Keep Ohio Beautiful & Keep America Beautiful to Address Litter, Recycling and Community Greening
 
Keep America Beautiful, Inc. welcomes Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful to its expanding nationwide, community-based network of affiliates, with the certification of Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful.
 
Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful will join over 1,200 Keep America Beautiful affiliates and participating organizations, including 24 statewide affiliates in the United States, and international affiliates in Canada, South Africa and the Bahamas. The Keep America Beautiful network mobilizes an estimated 4 million volunteers this year alone to take positive action on environmental concerns. As a result, litter is being reduced, solid waste is being managed responsibly, citizens are adopting vacant lots, highways and other public spaces, trees and flowers are replacing trash heaps and tire mounds, and recycling and composting efforts are expanding.
  
“The Wayne National Forest looks forward to working collaboratively with our neighbors to engage individuals in southeast Ohio to take greater responsibility for enhancing their environment,” said Anne Carey, Forest Supervisor for the southeastern Ohio national forest.  “It will help create a healthier and safer place to live, work and play, which will benefit local communities and the Forest.”
 
About Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful
Keep Southeast Ohio Beautiful is a thirteen county regional affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. Established in 2012, the affiliate works as a collaborative group to engage individuals in southeast Ohio to take greater responsibility for enhancing their environment.

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP^™

Do you have any community eyesores? How many times have you passed by a litter-strewn park or graffiti-splashed building and wished it would go away? Perhaps it's the local playground plagued with garbage or maybe a recycling effort needs a jump-start. Whatever the concern, a solution is just around the corner. All it takes is someone to say "enough is enough" and work with community members to eliminate the problem. It's a great way to improve your local community and be one of the millions of volunteers involved in the Great American Cleanup!

Visit the Calendar of Events for More Information on How to become involved in Ohio's Great American Cleanups!

Our Focus Areas

Studies have shown that a beautified community translates into a safe, healthy community and improves quality of life. Projects supported by Keep Ohio Beautiful encompass the three focus areas described below and include creating community gardens, preventing and cleaning up litter and graffiti, recycling and waste reduction.

Litter Prevention

In 2011, KOB and its affiliates removed 2,087,360 pounds of litter and debris from Ohio’s landscape.

Why It’s Needed:        
While litter prevention campaigns have helped improve the litter picture over the past 40 years, it remains a significant and costly problem for communities and businesses. The Ohio Department of Transportation, for example, spends nearly $4.5 million every year to clean up our state roadways.

Litter also lowers assessed property values, drives away homebuyers and hinders business development.

How KOB Helps:         
We identify the causes of litter and reduce its impact by organizing cleanups and promoting proper waste handling in our communities.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

3,698,008 pounds of solid waste kept out of landfills in 2011.

Why It’s Needed:        
Recycling creates more jobs than landfills and incineration. Recycling conserves our natural resources, saves landfill space, conserves energy, and reduces water pollution, air pollution and the green house gas emissions that cause global warming.

How KOB Helps:         
We help reduce the impact of solid waste in our communities through integrated programs and education about responsible consumerism, source reduction, reuse, and recycling, and landfills, composting and waste-to-energy technologies.

Beautification and Community Greening

Approximately 143,840 Ohio residents were touched through Keep Ohio Beautiful and its affiliates’ programs in 2011.

Why It’s Needed:        
Community greening improves quality of life, lowers crime and engages citizens. Buildings with high levels of greenery had 48% fewer property crimes and 56% fewer violent crimes, according to the 2009 National Visible Litter Survey and Litter Cost Study, commissioned by Keep America Beautiful.

How KOB Helps:         
We improve the visual aspects of our communities through programs that beautify and naturally clean our environment – creating community gardens, restoring vacant lots, beautifying highways and shorelines, urban forests, planting native flora, and preventing and abating graffiti.