The City of Champaign became a Keep America Beautiful Affiliate in 2015. Keep America Beautiful is a leading national non-profit organization which envisions a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live. Keep America Beautiful Certification is a key action of the Champaign Growing Greener Plan and supports the City Council’s strategic objective to “Promote Community Beautification and Litter Reduction.”
One of the requirements to maintain Keep America Beautiful certification is to conduct an annual Litter Index Survey. This survey has been conducted by the Keep Champaign Beautiful Committee (a sub-committee of the City’s Neighborhood Services Advisory Board) each October since Champaign became a Keep America Beautiful affiliate. For this survey, the city is divided into five separate areas for analysis. Within each area are segments of roadways that are analyzed and scored from 1-4. A score of one indicates little or no litter present while a score of four indicates a highly littered area. The results of the index surveys for the past four years are as follows:
|
|
|
Area 1 North Champaign |
Area 2 Central Champaign |
Area 3 East, Downtown & |
Area 4 South Champaign |
Area 5 SW Champaign |
Average |
|
Year |
2018 |
1.73 |
1.13 |
1.22 |
1.02 |
1.03 |
1.23 |
|
2017 |
2.25 |
1.04 |
1.25 |
1.03 |
1.00 |
1.31 |
|
|
2016 |
1.93 |
1.48 |
1.05 |
1.26 |
1.08 |
1.36 |
|
|
2015 |
2.12 |
1.58 |
1.16 |
1.10 |
1.11 |
1.41 |
Survey data shows that litter in Champaign has decreased over the past four years. The North Champaign survey area (north of I-74) had the greatest reduction in the amount of litter present, however, this area also remains the most littered area of town. The survey areas mainly consist of arterial and collector streets. Most of the litter appeared to have originated from area businesses or motorists/pedestrians in the area. A large amount of the litter consisted of fast food items and plastic bags. Litter Index data is being utilized in the development of a Litter Action Plan for the City of Champaign.