Before the leaves start to turn and fall, thousands of Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Adopt-A-Highway volunteers will fan out across the state to collect litter along highway roadsides from Saturday, Sept. 21, through Sunday, Sept. 29.

 

This is the third and final scheduled pickup period of the year.

 

Every year, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers regularly collect more than 60,000 bags of trash. The popular program began in Michigan in 1990 and has grown to involve more than 2,900 groups cleaning more than 6,000 miles of highway.

 

Motorists should be on the lookout for those groups as they clean the roadsides beginning Saturday. When working in a highway right of way, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers wear high-visibility, yellow-green safety vests required by federal regulations. MDOT provides free vests and trash bags, and arranges to haul away the trash