Community Resources

Keep Mississippi Beautiful offers a number of resources to community groups and local governments to help with litter cleanup and prevention, beautification and recycling, including grants and cleanup supplies.

Great American Cleanup

Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup^® occurs every spring, beautifying and unifying communities across the country in a grassroots spring-cleaning movement. The GAC offers structured service projects to measure changes in littering behavior and heighten awareness about the benefits of caring for the environment through organized volunteer events, employee engagement opportunities, and experiential education in communities across America.

Great American Cleanup in Mississippi

We invite neighborhood associations, churches, youth groups and other organizations to join us for our Great American Cleanup each year. To help with your cleanup, Keep Mississippi Beautiful provides trash bags (while they last). To request supplies, please fill out and submit a REQUEST FORM. Following your cleanup, be sure to complete and submit a WRAP-UP REPORT . Affiliates, please request supplies using this form. Affiliates will report through the KAB affiliate portal. Look for Great American Cleanup logos other resources on our Promotional Toolkit webpage.

Grants

Keep Mississippi Beautiful offers grants to nonprofits and local governments (i.e. cities, counties) to expand or develop litter prevention and cleanup programs as well as beautification programs. Grant proposals are accepted on an ongoing basis. Download the Grant Application.

If selected for a grant, please review/ complete the Grant Recipients Guidelines and Wrap-up Report. Additionally, download the KMB logo for promotional materials.

Forming a New Affiliate

If your community does not have an affiliate of Keep Mississippi Beautiful and Keep Mississippi Beautiful, we encourage you to help start one. This network offers a tested, practical way to educate citizens. Both Keep America Beautiful and Keep Mississippi Beautiful offer resources to help affiliates thrive and truly impact communities. If you’re interested in forming an affiliate, please contact Sarah Kountouris at sarah@keepmsbeautiful.com.

Other Resources

How to Recycle Unwanted Medicine in Mississippi: The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has set up drop off locations around the state of Mississippi for disposal of unwanted, expired, and unused household medications
Mississippi Recycling Coalition: This group offers grants and resources related to recycling in Mississippi.
Mississippi Extension Service: Research and educational services, reaching all 82 Mississippi counties.
Statewide Recycling Directory: Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has created an interactive tool to help view available recycling programs in Mississippi by county
Learn about Litter and Pollution

Don’t Trash Mississippi Teacher and community resources from MDOT’s litter education programs.

Teacher and community resources from Mississippi Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) litter education programs are an ideal way to inform and educate students of all ages about litter prevention.

Myrtle the Turtle visits K-5 ages. Myrtle considers all of Mississippi her home and encourages children to take responsibility to keep their home, Mississippi, clean and beautiful for all to enjoy.

MDOT offers educational programs to raise awareness about the dangers of litter for K-5 and 6-12 grades, as well as the environscape program, a hands-on demonstration about water pollution. Litter prevention coordinators in your MDOT transportation district may be scheduled for school and community presentations. See their contact information below.

Adopt-a-Highway

Roadside litter removal costs MDOT more than $3 million annually, and highways are still covered in litter. You can get involved by adopting a section of a state-maintained highway, and make a commitment to keeping it clean and litter-free.

How do I get involved?

To submit an application for admission into the
Adopt-A-Highway Program, contact the MDOT
District Litter Prevention Coordinator in your area.
For more information, call your District Office or visit GoMDOT.com and select “Programs,” then click “Don’t Trash Mississippi.”

What’s required?

Provide manpower to pick up litter on both sides of a one to two mile stretch of highway.
Agree to pick up litter at least four times per year.
Agree to abide by all MDOT program safety rules and guidelines.

MDOT will:

Provide official safety vests, gloves, trash bags and “Workers Ahead” traffic safety signs.
Provide, free of charge, an Adopt-a-Highway sign displaying the name of the adopting group.
Provide safety rules and guidelines.
Remove litter bags after pick up at pre-arranged locations.

https://www.wjtv.com/news/state/what-is-the-adopt-a-highway-program/

Mississippi Litter Laws

Miss. Code Ann. §97-15-29

First conviction: fine between $50 and $250, with the option of community service, payment of damages, removal of waste, and payment of agency costs. Subsequent convictions: minimum and maximum fines doubled.