Escambia County hopes to be a little cleaner following next week’s “Don’t Drop It on Alabama” litter campaign.

The campaign led by the People Against a Littered State begins Saturday and runs until next week with the Escambia County Commission taking a direct involvement in the effort.

Becoming part of the campaign is as easy as picking up trash bags from one of three sites around Atmore, Brandon Smith, County Commissioner for District 4, said.

“The Escambia County Commission has joined with P.A.L.S. to fight against our litter problem,” he said. “People interested in helping can stop by the Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce, Atmore City Hall or see me at Atmore Auto Parts to get trash bags. They can even adopt a mile if they would like to do so. Once the trash is picked up, they can leave it next to the road, and the county will come around and collect it.”

The campaign in the county has already been picking up steam, as the week long event prepares to begin.

Several different kinds of organizations are already stepping up to pick up trash around the county, Smith said.

“We have coordinated with churches, schools and other organizations that are picking up litter where they would like to pick it up,” he said.

Also going on this Saturday and next Saturday will be an electronics drive to collect things such as old computers and televisions.
The drive is held through a federal prison in Florida that handles the disposal of unused electronics, Smith said.

“In conjunction with the ‘Don’t Drop it on Alabama’ campaign, we will be holding an electronics drive at the Farmer’s Market next to city hall,” he said. “We work with a recycling group out of or Marianna, Fla. that will bring an 18-wheeler up, so we can wrap and pallet up the electronics, so they can take it to the federal prison there to have it recycled. We collect anything electronic including TVs, old radios and computers.”

Both the litter campaign and electronics drive have important effects on the city of Atmore and Escambia County.

Becoming a part of each effort helps trim down on litter and stops our environment from becoming further polluted, Smith said.

“It helps keeps that stuff out of our ditches and creeks,” he said. “Sometimes, that stuff ends up in our waterways, but this gives us the chance to get that stuff out of here properly to avoid any kinds of problems.

For more information contact Brandon Smith at 251-254-0817 or the Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce at 368-3305.