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Keep Abita Beautiful reports 9,000 pounds of litter collected, wins $10,000 recycling grant
Summary
Keep Abita Beautiful told the council it collected roughly 9,000 pounds of litter, weighed about 18,000 cigarette butts and recycled ~17,000 pounds of materials last fiscal year; the group received a $10,000 grant to install five three-stream public waste stations and expand outreach.
Sandra Slifer, president of Keep Abita Beautiful, presented the group's annual activity report to the Abita Springs council, calling out volunteer and community support and describing new recycling infrastructure funded by a state grant.
Slifer said the group picked up approximately 9,000 pounds of litter and about 18,000 cigarette butts in the past fiscal year, conducted 25 cleanups and 28 recycling events, and recorded roughly 900 volunteer hours from 300 volunteers (valued at about $29,700 using the state volunteer value). She said the group recycled about 17,000 pounds of glass, metal, plastic and paper at events.
Slifer announced that Keep Abita Beautiful received a $10,000 grant from Keep Louisiana Beautiful to fund five new public three-stream waste stations (trash, plastics, aluminum) that will be placed at the trailhead park, the community garden, town hall, the recreation district, and the nature center. She described accompanying public-education efforts, signage and temporary kiosks for events, and upcoming community events including a townwide cleanup on Sept. 13, a Fall Fest raffle, and a ticketed fundraising concert in November.
Council members thanked Slifer and the volunteers for their work and asked staff to coordinate signage and placement of new stations. One resident asked whether the new receptacles would accept the same plastics currently accepted in local collection programs; Slifer confirmed they would accept the same #1 and #2 plastics and metal.
Slifer closed by inviting volunteers to the vendors' table at the farmers market on Aug. 24 and encouraging students needing service hours to participate in the Sept. 13 cleanup.
