Anna Pedroza (l) and Robin Blut preparing weekend workday tools for pick up by a civic association

Last year Houston Clean City Commission (HCCC) motivated and organized more than 40,000 citizens to pick up 1.6 million pounds of garbage and debris from Houston’s streets, parks and school grounds. Some of the volunteers even planted flowers and shrubs in place of discarded waste and installed irrigation equipment to maintain the patch of land they had rescued. Executive Director Robin Blut says, “We’re one of the largest clean cities in the nation. Our community was selected as the site for a study on urban litter by the U.S. Conference of Mayors because we’re one of the best.”

HCCC was established in 1976 by a citizen who was unhappy about the trash and tall weeds that defiled Houston’s byways and intersections. In 1979, HCCC became an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, a coalition of more than 500 organizations that educates communities about the growing problem of excess garbage, litter and trash.

After the affiliation became official, HCCC became known by most Houstonians as Keep Houston Beautiful. Presently, 40 HCCC volunteer commissioners, who have been appointed by the Mayor and approved by city council, decide which programs to undertake. All are major stakeholders in the Houston community and bring a wealth of experience and resources to the organization.

HCCC’s cleanup and beautification services require extensive planning and many volunteers. “The people who work one day on a project also give up several evenings to sit down and talk with their neighbors and develop a list of things in the neighborhood that need repair,” says Ms. Blut. “Volunteers drive through the neighborhood with one of our staff members, and we write down and prioritize all the problems. As we begin to plan the workdays, we determine how many volunteers are needed and whether the project is doable. Sometimes in one neighborhood we may have four workdays during a year just because the area is so big that we want to divide it into manageable sizes.” In one year alone, HCCC organized 249 cleanup and beautification workdays through its Clean Neighborhoods program.

HCCC also helps civic groups learn how to set up independent, ongoing cleanup and maintenance programs. “We provide technical assistance and lend equipment from our warehouse,” Ms. Blut says. “While we work to educate civic leaders, we also work with the neighborhood schools in the same area so that we’re reaching the young people at the same time. After a teacher has taken a workshop with us, we send one of our staff into the classroom to team-teach about reducing, removing and recycling waste.”

HCCC also works with the Houston Chronicle to produce an insert in the newspaper that informs readers about neighborhood cleanup efforts and recycling centers. “But, there’s a lot of room for growth,” Ms. Blut adds. “A city of this size should air public service anouncements. In the past, the FTC required TV and radio stations to air a certain amount of them, so they were very accessible to us. All we had to do was produce announcements. Now airtime is not available, and we’re required to pay for it, which is very expensive. We need to air public service announcements in both Spanish and English.

“Clearly, our mission is to empower people to take care of our physically built environment,” Ms. Blut concludes. “We stress each individual’s responsibility to take care of the environment, and education is the foundation of what we do.”

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