Make Beautiful Litter-Free Moments for Valentine’s Day

When asking residents of Dalton what they love about downtown, many of them will talk about it feeling like a Hallmark movie with its quaint shops and walkability. It is a perfect place to take a stroll for Valentine’s Day. Or you can visit Mount Rachel for a romantic backdrop. There’s one thing that can absolute ruin a romantic Valentine’s Day moment at any spot though. I’m not speaking about bad breath, but litter.

Litter can be a group of plastic bags caught up in the bushes or soda cups lining the grass along a roadway. It destroys our scenery, ruins beautiful moments, and hurts our wildlife. Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful will be picking up a piece of litter everyday starting the week of Valentine’s Day and sharing it on their Instagram and Facebook. Their goal is to normalize picking up litter and keeping our community clean.

You may have noticed their “Love it, Don’t Trash it” campaigns in past years.

When you pick up litter, and someone sees you do it, you may inspire them to do the same. Or at least, next time they’re about to throw something on the ground they’ll think twice. And, it’s good to know that litter attracts more litter. But when a place looks clean and cared for the amount of litter decreases or even disappears completely.

Visit www.keepdaltonwhitfieldbeautiful.org and like the Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful page on Facebook to learn about the negative impacts of litter, and the action steps you can take to prevent it. If you pick up litter this month take a photo and share it on your favorite social media site with the hashtag #livelitterfree so they can share it out to everyone.

Here are a few of the tips you can implement in your own home where you’ll have the most control over what happens to your trash. Get started by finding out which materials you can recycle and which need to be disposed of by visiting dwswa.org or calling 706-278-5001 to reach the recycling center. Set up indoor recycling bins and trash cans in different rooms of your home. Periodically collect the recyclables and waste from inside your home and place them in the trash cart or recycling bin for collection outdoors.

Next, take a look at your vehicle. A lot of the litter produced in Whitfield comes from commuters. Place a bag inside your car for easy disposal so that you aren’t tempted to throw anything out or leave trash in the floorboard where it can blow out on a windy day. When you stop to get gas, take an extra second to throw out all your trash in their trash cans. Not only will you be keeping the community clean, but you will also have a cleaner car.

Show your neighborhood some love too by taking just ten minutes to pick up any trash you may find along the sidewalk. Carry a plastic shopping bag with you to pick up litter as you enjoy a walk with your loved one or pet. If you have children, challenge them to find ten littered items and pick those up. Reward the ones who find ten items the fastest, or start a scavenger hunt for different types of litter. The most commonly littered items include bottles, fast food packaging, and cigarette butts.

This Valentine’s Day help create more beautiful moments in the community by keeping it clean. You don’t want your romantic moment ruined by stepping on an old bag of fast food or surrounded by cigarette butts, and neither does anyone else. Avoid littering and join Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful in picking up one piece of litter each day for the rest of February.