Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful to Host Virtual Community Conversation

Atlanta GA

24 February, 2022

3:33 PM

Description

Public Asked to Attend and Supply Questions About Litter for March 23 Facilitator-Led Discussion with Citizens, Industry Experts and Keep America Beautiful Leaders  Lawrenceville, Ga. – February 23, 2022 – Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful (GC&B) announced today that plans are underway for a first of its kind event March 23, 2022. The Keep America Beautiful affiliate will host “Connecting People and Places: A Community Conversation About Litter” intended to address the issue of littering on a hyperlocal scale. Executive Director for Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, Schelly Marlatt, issued an invitation to the public to attend this virtual conversation and submit their questions about litter for the facilitator-led dialogue. Questions will be selected at random to drive the discussion with concerned citizens and industry experts. “We are incredibly honored to have been selected by Keep America Beautiful from 700 national affiliates to get this meaningful conversation started,” said Marlatt. “Although we’ve witnessed a 54% decrease in litter along U.S. roadways over the last decade, 90% of Americans agree that litter is still a problem in their community. There is still so much more to do and Gwinnett County – well-known for our love of community – is a great place to start. Because engagement in litter prevention requires the commitment of members of the community to ensure the highest levels of success, it’s vital that we make our neighbors part of the conversation to address and prevent littering in the community that we love. While it will be virtual, we hope to engage Gwinnettians and concerned individuals across the United States in the weeks leading up to March 23 to not only register, but submit their questions, and then tune in that day to see citizens and industry experts discuss ways to help us confront what are sure to be some tough questions as the exchange of ideas take place via livestream.” From 8-10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 23, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful will host the livestream conversation at Georgia Gwinnett College. Responsive Management will be facilitating and Laura Hernandez, of Gwinnett Recycles and environmental psychologist, Dr. Wesley Schultz are among the panelists. “Decades ago, Keep America Beautiful launched a highly successful public service campaign that galvanized the nation in the fight against litter.  At the time, a shared cultural ethic and value was established.  This shared focus and commitment lead to meaningful reductions in littering.  It is our hope that the dialogue that will take place in Gwinnett will help establish a new shared cultural ethic across the highly diverse and culturally rich communities we live in.  We know that engaging our communities in this discussion in the first step in achieving meaningful change and we commend Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful for starting the conversation”, said Randy Hartmann, Senior Director of Affiliate Operations for Keep America Beautiful. A link to join the conversation will be sent to all registrants within a week leading up to the event. Register today at https://www.gwinnettcb.org/events