"Littering is stupid! Be a litter quitter!”
This is the blunt but honest message that the Litter Quitters Committee is hoping to leave with Jefferson County high school students and its citizens. Now in its fifth year, the Committee aims to educate students and citizens about the negative effects of litter while also empowering students to become more actively involved in clean water promotion.
The Litter Quitters Committee was formed by a group of like-minded organizations who wanted a more involved approach and public awareness campaign encouraging everyone to be more mindful about discarding their trash properly, but more specifically high school students, to stop littering if they do litter and tell others to do the same. Based on a Keep America Beautiful study, the most frequent culprits of littering are teenagers and young adults aged 18 to 35. This demographic is three times more likely to litter than older adults. That is why the Committee has chosen to focus their attention on high school students, stopping bad habits before they are formed.
As part as the Litter Quitters Campaign, the Committee hosts a video competition allowing students to become change agents by creating an anti-litter video message. Each participating school submits one video into the competition that runs for 12 days while students urge their friends, family members, and neighbors to watch and vote for their video on the Litter Quitters website (www.litterquitters.org). The county is split into 3 competition zones based on watersheds, whereas, schools in each zone compete among others in the same zone. The videos with the most likes win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each of the 3 watershed zones. The Committee does invite all public schools located in Jefferson County to participate; however, the COVID-19 virus has still impacted the participation of all the schools this year given all the obstacles of remote learning and following all state and local regulations. Given all the complications and setbacks for this year’s competition, the Committee was pleased that some schools were able to submit videos for this year’s competition and participate in the PSA portions of the Litter Quitters Campaign.
As part of the competition, each school gets to select one student to be featured in the Committee’s professionally produced television public service announcement to be aired on local news channels starting in July. Two students were chosen to produce a radio PSA, one in English and one in Spanish to be aired on local radio stations staring in July. In addition to these two PSAs, the Committee will also be running ads on local billboards, so be on the lookout this summer for them!
“It is always fun to see how creative the students can be from year to year. It makes for an intense competition!”
says Hana Berres, Litter Quitters Committee member. The Committee is excited to announce the official 1st place winners of the 2022 high school video competition. They are as follows: North Zone (Locust Fork Watershed) - Clay Chalkville High School, East Zone (Cahaba River Watershed) - Shades Valley High School, and the West Zone (Valley Creek Watershed) - Oak Grove High School. The Committee also awards an additional award to the school whose video demonstrated both great technical skills as well as a great water protection message. It is voted on by an outside group of individuals who are qualified to access these aspects. This year, Homewood High School was awarded the “Best Overall” award for their video. Congrats to all these students and teachers! They worked very hard this year and the Committee is proud of all their work.
Ultimately, the Litter Quitters Committee hopes to see a significant reduction in litter along our road and waterways through the Campaign. Most people do not realize that litter does not stay where it was dropped; it gets carried by rain and wind to the nearest waterway—the same waterways we get our drinking water. Litter dirties our environment, costs a lot to clean up, lowers property values, and is even linked to the increased incidences of crime lowing the quality of everyone’s lives. The Campaign seeks to leave a lasting impression about the negative consequences of tossing trash out of vehicles or dropping it on the ground not only to the students that participate in these video competitions, but through the PSAs to everyone that live, work, and recreate in Jefferson County. Our goal of the Litter Quitters Campaign is to create a general awareness about the impacts that litter has on people, their homes and their environment encouraging them to change their behaviors and to make sure their trash is properly disposed.
We encourage you to learn more about the Litter Quitters Campaign and how to get involved in stopping the litter epidemic in Jefferson County. Visit www.litterquitters.org for more information, see a listing of the upcoming local volunteer litter cleanups, hear the radio PSA, and watch the television PSA along with all the student videos. This summer, the Committee is excited to also announce our first ever Tik Tok Challenge available to students attending a school in Jefferson County, aged 14 to 22. The Challenge is easy to participate. Interested students should first register by submitting an entry form available on www.litterquitters.org, Students can individually or pair up to create a maximum 60-second anti littering message. Obtaining the most likes during the 15-day competition will award a $100 cash award. A second $100 cash award will be given to the video which contains the best anti-littering message. The competition will run from July 1st – July 15th. Those interested should contact our Committee and visit out website for details.
Join us to be Litter Quitters!
article by: Holly Lynne Killian & Hana Berres
photography by: Holly Lynne Killian & Litter Quitters Committee
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