After record-setting floods along the Pearl River in Mississippi left behind debris and litter, Keep Mississippi Beautiful (KMB) quickly mobilized volunteers – including Governor Tate Reeves and First Lady Elee Reeves – to help the hardest-hit places.

KMB looked at how it could leverage fellow affiliates across the state to combat litter upstream to help minimize litter impacts in future floods. This was one of the first times that KMB addressed litter from a non-point source perspective. The litter wasn’t a symptom of typical litter behavior, but rather the culmination of behaviors across an entire watershed.

KMB deployed short-term and long-term approaches, immediately cleaning up litter with the help of Keep Jackson Beautiful as well as the support up-stream affiliates, including Keep Ridgeland Beautiful and Keep The Rez Beautiful, to help fight litter to prevent floods from carrying it downstream in the event of future floods.

KMB and its partners collected over 1,200 pounds of litter and debris during the one-day cleanup event.

Keep Mississippi Beautiful was presented a Keep America Beautiful 2020 State Affiliate Innovation Award for these efforts.