Before its adoption by GreenTown Los Altos in the spring, a local highway roadside was littered with old sneakers, cardboard scraps, forgotten sleeping bags, worn tires, a shower chair and myriad other debris.
“We found it with large piles of things like heavy batteries and poles, metal and wood debris, stuff that had been blown off a car or truck, and all sorts of bottles and cans,” said Kim Jelfs, program leader for GreenTown’s Zero Waste program. “There were also all sorts of random things like a sneaker and … a disintegrating sleeping bag.”
In two cleanup events, held May 1 and July 17, GreenTown’s volunteer-based Zero Waste team collected nearly 120 pounds of trash along Interstate 280 in Los Altos.
“There was actually a lot more trash out there than we anticipated – stuff that could have been taken home and recycled but for some reason ended up in the community,” Jelfs said.
Former GreenTown board member Donna Staton proposed the idea of adopting a highway after seeing similar cleanup programs in other communities. Jelfs, who had experience with highway cleanups, took it over when Staton moved out of the area.
“I’ve done these in my neighborhood in Sunnyvale,” Jelfs said. “So, I was a little bit familiar with how the whole process works.”
The cleanup was made possible through the adopt-a-highway program run by the state transportation department, known as Caltrans. The program allows both individuals and organizations to adopt sections of California’s highway roadsides with a pledge to maintain them and keep them free of litter.
Jelfs said GreenTown hoped to adopt a piece of the highway located centrally in Los Altos and worked with Caltrans for more than a year to secure the spot along the on- and off-ramps of 280 and Magdalena Avenue.
“We went out and we looked at the site to decide if we thought it was something that GreenTown could do,” she said. “Then there’s some safety training that you have to do with Caltrans, and about four of our team members took that training.”
After the success of its first two cleanups, Jelfs added that GreenTown plans to continue organizing regular cleanups and has committed to maintaining the highway for the next five years. The next cleanup is scheduled Nov. 4. Volunteers are welcome, but they must be at least 16 years old.
“We kind of feel every little bit helps,” Jelfs said. “We are keeping trash not only out of our community, but also out of the waterways … creeks and oceans. It’s really a very valuable community service.”
The first two cleanups ran approximately 90 minutes, according to Jelfs, who hopes to reduce that time with more volunteers.
To volunteer and for more information, email Jelfs at [email protected].
