Annual Awards Luncheon

Every year, Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful recognizes groups, individuals and businesses during its Annual Awards Ceremony in August.

Throughout the year, KHCB seeks nominations for its individual, group and business award winners. This is the seventh year the non-profit organization has put a call out to county residents to nominate someone from their community who goes above and beyond their call of duty when it comes to litter and beautification.

Nominees can include individuals who pick up litter in their neighborhoods; groups who take pride and play an active role in their community; and businesses that make a commitment to litter prevention through volunteer efforts and/or make exemplary community improvements. Nomination forms must be received by July 11, 2008.

The luncheon, not only provides an opportunity to recognize these individuals, but our funding partners, sponsors, site captains and Adopt-A-Road/Adopt-A-Shore volunteers as well.

In addition, KHCB is always looking for donations for its silent auction that takes place during the luncheon to help raise money for new programs. Contact KHCB at (813) 960-5121 to make a donation.

Adopt-A-Road

The Adopt-A-Road program is a great way to build a sense of community pride and get recognition for your group, business or organization. Those wanting to participate are required to adopt a minimum of one mile of county maintained roadway and clean it four times a year, for at least two years. Groups are welcome to extend the agreement beyond the two year minimum.

The Adopt-A-Highway program is similar to the Adopt-A-Road program except that the minimum section of roadway is two miles. The rest of the terms remain the same. Groups that are interested in adopting state maintained roadways should contact the Florida Department of Transportation.

Download Adopt-A-Road Form
Download Adopt-A-Road Safety Training Roster

Adopt-A-Shore

Similar to the Adopt-A-Road program, Adopt-A-Shore groups are required to adopt a one-mile stretch of shoreline, cleaning it three times a year.

Download Adopt-A-Shore Form

Adopt-A-Spot

The Adopt-A-Spot program is one way to help take pride in your community, whether you’re a business, a school or just a group of individuals who want to make a difference,

Through the Adopt-A-Spot program, your cleanup possibilities are endless. You could choose to adopt a vacant lot, school campus, neighborhood block, a bus stop, business or other location of your choice. Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful (KHCB) asks that you clean your adopted spot just four times a year with two of the cleanups taking place on or around the Great American Cleanup in April and the Coastal Cleanup in September.

KHCB will assist by providing the cleanup supplies and the sign recognizing your group. All you have to do is provide the man power and submit a cleanup report form. We hope you will help do your part in improving your community and Adopt-A-Spot.

Monofilament Recovery & Recycling Program

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful has started a Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program, a county-wide effort to educate the public on the problems caused by monofilament line left in the environment and encourage recycling through a network of monofilament line recycling bins and drop off locations.  

Monofilament fishing line, which is a single strand of high density fishing line, is incredibly strong and invisible in the water. This makes it excellent for fishing but hazardous to wildlife. Most people do not realize that discarded monofilament fishing line takes 600 years to break down completely.

Animals such as dolphins, manatees, sea turtles, birds and fish, to name a few, can become entangled in fishing line. Once entangled, the animal will struggle and possibly entangle themselves more, or the fishing line can cut into the animal which can cause a fatal infection. An animal that is entangled cannot move freely to feed itself and will starve to death, drown or die due o complications from the entanglement.

Animals may also ingest the monofilament line. Species, such as sea turtles, often mistake monofilament fishing line for their favorite food source: Jelly fish! Birds can also ingest the monofilament by eating a fish that is tangled in the line. Once this fishing line is ingested, the tangled balls of monofilament can cause impaction in the animal’s digestive system. The monofilament line may also have hooks or lead weights which can tear the lining of some animals’ stomachs.  

Monofilament line not only harms animals, but it also impacts people as well. Divers may also become entangled and drown. Monofilament also impacts boaters when it becomes tangled in propellers, intake valves, the automatic tilt mechanism and other engine parts. All of this can result in costly repairs.

So what can you do to help reduce the amount of monofilament line that in our environment? By recycling the line you help reduce the amount of waste that goes into our landfills every year. You also are helping to create a new resource. Monofilament line can be recycled and turned into fishing tackle boxes and freshwater habitats.
Finally, you can get help with reducing the amount of monofilament line in our county by participating in our yearly International Coastal Cleanup or you can adopt one of our monofilament recycling tubes. This program is a great way to get involved within your community and to help reduce the amount of monofilament line that is in our environment.

Annual Litter Index Survey

This year, the Litter Index Survey will be held in January. Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful coordinates a Litter Index survey to determine whether litter is increasing or decreasing in the county.

To conduct the survey, KHCB uses groups of four or five volunteers to rate about 10 to 12 sites in each of the four County Commissioner districts. Volunteers are asked to rate each site on a scale of one to four - from no litter to extremely littered. While four volunteers from each group are asked to rate the sites, a fifth volunteer is needed to be the designated driver and take pictures of each site.

The Great American Cleanup of Florida

During the month of April, thousands of local residents come out to clean up and beautify our community. The objective is to raise public awareness about litter in our communities. KHCB rallies volunteers to make a visible difference in their environment through initiatives such as litter removal, litter prevention, recycling, beautification and improvement programs.

Sponsored by Keep America Beautiful, the Great American Cleanup inspires people to take pride in their communities by encouraging volunteerism, personal action and responsibility.

The International Coastal Cleanup

The ocean was once seen as a vast and limitless area that had the ability to absorb the trash we dumped into it. Florida's population increase, combined with a disposable society mindset, has resulted in marine debris continuing to choke our waterways and ruin our pristine beaches, threatening human health and endangering marine wildlife. Partnering with The Ocean Conservancy, Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful tries to help solve the problems of litter.

People are the problem, but people are also the solution. Marine debris is one pollution problem that society can solve with action. The cleanup is about individual solutions to a global problem.

Neighborhood Cleanups

In addition, to the Great American Cleanup and Florida Coastal Cleanup, Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful works with groups of volunteers throughout the year to conduct smaller community and neighborhood cleanups.

Church groups, YMCA's and students from local universities are among the groups KHCB works with to clean up the county throughout the year.

Studies have shown that a clean and well-maintained neighborhood serves as a deterrent for crime.

By working together we build a sense of community pride, which in turn leads to cleaner and safer places to live. When we build a sense of community, we are building a better tomorrow.

Community Presentations

Part of Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful's mission is to create an awareness of litter through our community presentations and education programs.

To achieve that goal, we are always looking for new venues to help spread the message about litter and how it impacts our communities, environment and wildlife.

A guest speaker will come out and discuss with your group how litter relates to crime, health and safety hazards as well as how it impacts our wildlife.

We are also available to speak in schools where an interactive presentation is followed by a brief video that engages youngsters in the litter prevention message.

Please contact KHCB for more information about this and its other cleanup campaigns.