CLEANUP TOOLS: Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful offers cleanup tools and resources to those who are compelled to clean up nature when they see trash scattered amidst the beauty. Fresh air and sunshine can help improve your mood, lower blood pressure and reduce stress to name a few. But the sight of litter while enjoying nature defeats the purpose. For those who want to clean up the trash, however, it is important to be safe about the effort.

In addition to littered gloves, masks and wipes that are potentially contaminated, there is also nature itself to be aware of. Stinging insects, ticks and snakes are all active this time of year.

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, a statewide community improvement organization has a variety of cleanup tools and resources available, including cleanup safety guidelines on their website’s cleanup resources page: https://www.keeppabeautiful.org/keep-pennsylvania-beautiful-clean-it/keep-pennsylvania-beautiful-clean-it-cleanup-tools-and-resources/, or go to keeppabeautiful.org and choose Clean It, then Cleanup Tools and Resources.

“Over the past several weeks, many of us have found extra time to enjoy nature, taking more walks, hiking more trails, and just spending more time outside. Unfortunately, the increased outdoor activity has also increased the amount of litter found along our trails and in our parks and neighborhoods. We know folks are eager to clean up while they are out enjoying all that Pennsylvania has to offer so we want to be sure they are being safe while doing it,” said Shannon Reiter, President of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful has been a steadfast advocate of disposing trash properly in the first place.

Reiter also discouraged people from picking up wipes or gloves without litter collection devices, gloves, or the ability to immediately wash and sanitize your hands, because the items could be contaminated.