Adopt-A-Highway
Keep Ohio Beautiful is partnering with the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Adopt-A-Highway Program to market and expand this beneficial program to help keep Ohio beautiful.
Each year, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) dedicates millions of dollars to litter clean-up. ODOT crews, inmates, and volunteer groups picked up 396,000 bags of trash along highways throughout the state in 2018, costing the agency a total cost of $4.1 million.
Adopt-A-Highway is one of the methods in which ODOT controls litter and to keep the state’s highways beautiful. The program allows volunteer groups to adopt a two-mile section or an interchange along a state, federal or interstate route, free of cost. The program carries the following requirements:
- Groups are asked to adopt for two years and pick up litter a minimum of four times each year.
- Participants in Adopt-A-Highway should be volunteers and not paid to pick up litter.
- Groups can partner with others in adopting but may not pay another group to pick up litter.
ODOT will provide safety training, trash bags, disposable safety vests and two signs to be used at the beginning of the two-mile section. The only cost to each group is their time.
The Ohio Department of Transportation maintains thousands of miles of roadway, 152 rest areas and 11 travel information centers to make travel more pleasant. Each year, within District 7 alone, over 20 tons of trash is collected from our highways. This is an important and costly job to keep our state beautiful. Unfortunately, more needs to be done.
The Adopt-A-Highway Program enables ODOT to save taxpayer dollars and allows communities and residents of Ohio to help keep their state clean and free from litter. The program allows ODOT work crews more time to devote to its core functions, including road maintenance and construction projects. Each group that adopts a highway saves ODOT approximately $800 in litter pick up costs per year.
You, along with friends and neighbors, can agree to “adopt” a highway. Volunteer to clean up a two-mile stretch of highway, at least four times a year, you can keep Ohio’s roads attractive and free of litter. In addition to cleaning roadways in your community, you are creating a partnership with others, which helps to foster civic pride.
In addition to helping keep our roadways free of litter, your group can draw positive media coverage by participating in the program. As an extra incentive, ODOT places green signs on the section of highway that has been “adopted”. These signs are inscribed with the adopting group’s name and placed at each end of their two-mile section.
…Together We Can Make A Difference
The Adopt-A-Highway Program began during the summer of 1989 and went statewide in March of 1990. Since 1989, thousands of volunteers have joined forces through ODOT’s Adopt-A-Highway program to help keep Ohio’s scenic views clean. Each year, ODOT spends an average of $5 million specifically on litter removal.