PA CleanWays of Elk County, a chapter of PA CleanWays, was formed in 2000 with support from the Elk County Recycling Coordinator. The chapter focuses on cleanups of illegal dumps and educating the public on the detriments of illegal dumping and littering. Since our inception through the end of 2009, Elk County has held 35 cleanups removing and properly disposing 100.37 tons of trash as well as recycling over 500 tires! These cleanup efforts have eliminated the majority of the large dumpsites found in the county.

The Elk County Chapter has an extensive network of volunteers and works with many local conservation groups. Since 2005, our volunteers have donated 600 hours to help make Elk County a better place to live, work, and play! Volunteers can also 'adopt' sites, which includes monitoring and disposing of any additional trash that accumulates at a cleaned dumpsite or along municipal roads. Currently, there are a total of four adoptions in Elk County.

Unfortunately, illegal dumping continues to be a problem in the county.The Elk County Illegal Dump Survey was completed in 2007 by PA CleanWays to identify illegal dumpsites within the county.The survey results show that Elk County had 79 illegal dumpsites with an estimated 119 tons of trash. One of the sites on the survey that was cleaned is the Meadowbrook site in Ridgway Township. In the early winter of 2008, the site was cleaned with the help of the township by removing and properly disposing of 9.36 tons of trash and recycling 2.4 tons of scrap metal.

SR 555 Before		SR 555 After

Please check our Calendar of Events for upcoming cleanups. If you would like to become a volunteer for the chapter, please contact Bekki Titchner, Chapter Coordinator, at 814-776-5373, or by e-mail. If you would like to make a donation to PA CleanWays of Elk County to help support chapter activities, please consider giving to the PA CleanWays Clean and Green Fund.