Via Unsplash.
By Kasie Bolling
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. | Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful will host a first-of-its-kind national event focusing on litter on March 23. The Keep America Beautiful affiliate is calling the event “Connecting People and Places: A Community Conversation About Litter,” which is intended to address the issue of littering on a hyper-local scale.
Schelly Marlatt, executive director for Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful, issues an invitation to the public to attend this virtual conversation and submit their questions about litter for the facilitator-led dialogue. Questions will be selected at random to drive the discussion with concerned citizens and industry experts.
Marlatt says: “We are incredibly honored to have been selected by Keep America Beautiful from 700 national affiliates to get this meaningful conversation started. Although we’ve witnessed a 54 percent decrease in litter along U.S. roadways over the last decade, still 90 percent of Americans agree that litter is a problem in their community. There is still so much more to do and Gwinnett County – well-known for our love of community – is a great place to start.
“Because engagement in litter prevention requires the commitment of members of the community to ensure the highest levels of success, it’s vital that we make our neighbors part of the conversation to address and prevent littering in the community that we love. While the event will be virtual, we hope to engage Gwinnettians and concerned individuals across the United States in the weeks leading up to March 23 to not only register, but submit their questions, and then tune in that day to see citizens and industry experts discuss ways to help us confront what are sure to be some tough questions as the exchange of ideas take place via livestream.”
The site of the event will be at Georgia Gwinnett College, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on March 23. Staff of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful will be on hand as hosts. The livestream conversation will have a team from Responsive Management facilitating the meeting, with panelists including Laura Hernandez of Gwinnett Recycles and Dr. Wesley Schultz, an environmental psychologist.
Randy Hartmann, senior director of affiliate operations for Keep America Beautiful, adds this thought: “Decades ago, Keep America Beautiful launched a successful public service campaign that galvanized the nation in the fight against litter. At the time, a shared cultural ethic and value was established. This shared focus and commitment led to meaningful reductions in littering. It is our hope that the dialogue that will take place in Gwinnett will help establish a new shared cultural ethic across the highly diverse and culturally rich communities we live in. We know that engaging our communities in this discussion is the first step in achieving meaningful change and we commend Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful for starting the conversation”.
- A link to join the conversation will be sent to all registrants within a week leading up to the event. Register today at https://www.gwinnettcb.org/events.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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