Great Anderson County Cleanup Set for April 25
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
It’s the season to get your mind (and the rest of you) in the gutter, and ditches and along roadsides: it’s time for the Great Anderson County Cleanup,
The event is set for April 25 from 8 a.m.-noon with kickoff at 1428 Pearman Dairy Road. Safety vests, googles, bags, litter grabbers and gloves will be available. Last year more than 500 volunteers in the annual effort to pick up litter along many of the main roads in the county,
Those who cannot make the April 25 event can pick up free supplies to help clean up the county of litter anytime during the month of April to join in the effort in their own neighborhoods.
Litter continues to be a growing concern in the county. As the population grows, so grows the problem of littering, something that receives daily complaints from citizens.
In 2025, more than 40,000 bags of garbage were picked up from the county’s roadside by the Solid Waste Department and volunteers.
Keep Anderson County Beautiful Coordinator Samantha Porter said education efforts are ongoing, but she’d like to see more.
“I love going to the schools and speaking to children about our recycling program, but also litter prevention,” said Porter. “We like to give the schools supplies for their litter pickups even if it's just on their school campus and playground but the opportunity to educate. We want to get the word out that litter's a problem and show them how we can make a difference working together.”
Each year the county recycled more than 500 tons of glass at its 13 recycling convenience centers across the county, while some neighboring counties – including Greenville and Spartanburg – stopped recycling glass in 2015.
“We’re proud of the work we do recycling glass,” said Anderson County Solid Waste Director Greg Smith in an earlier interview with the Observer. “It makes a difference.”
Recycled glass can present challenges, since it can contaminate other materials and have high processing costs. But county leaders think it is important that glass recycling is included in the county’s efforts to be more environmentally responsible.
The county is also an Upstate leader in recycling efforts at the 13 convenience centers where citizens can bring aluminum cans, batteries lead-acid (car, truck, boat), cardboard, cooking oil, household electronics (televisions, computers, computer monitors, printers, cellphones, landline phones), mixed paper (magazines, newspaper, inserts, office paper, brown paper bags), paperboard (cereal boxes, shoe boxes), plastic bottles, jars and jugs, steel cans, used motor oil (filters and bottles), and only at the 104 Landfill Road in Belton site, tires (fees for tires: first 10 tires free; $1.50/tire after 10; $3.50/tractor trailer tire; $105/off-road tire bigger than 29" wide and 59" tall $30/off-road tire small than 29" wide and 59" tall.
For more information and to find the convenience center nearest you, visit here.
