Record-breaking year for Vermont’s Green Up Day

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - The numbers are out and this year’s Green Up Day was record-breaking.

Since 1970, Green Up Day has been a time to give back to the planet and help clean up communities.

This year, Vermonters picked up 497 tons of trash-- that’s up almost 20% from last year-- and they cleaned more than 75% of the state’s 13,000 miles of town roads.

Green Up Vermont Executive Director Kate Alberghini says she’s proud of the collection effort, but she hopes in future years there will be less out in the world to collect.

“The fact that we have tens of thousands of volunteers come out for the one-day Green Up event and pick 497 tons of trash is incredible. I would like to see the amount of trash go down because it isn’t out there. I would like to see the number of volunteers go up because that means more people are caring about the state of Vermont,” Alberghini said.

More than 19,000 volunteers participated this year, down by about 15% from last year.

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