Twelve years of making Alabaster a cleaner place to live and work.
By Lee Hurley
In 2012 when Stacy Rakestraw had recently joined the City Council, she noticed a pressing need to improve the aesthetics of the city, especially the situation with litter 
around major roadways. So, she took the initiative to start planning and coordinating an annual litter pick-up event for businesses, schools, organizations, and residents to be a part of and volunteer. That effort has led to Clean Sweep, which is a citywide litter reduction and recycling project in Alabaster. After a couple of years, Rakestraw decided to add paper shredding and electronic recycling, which was very successful then and continues to grow each year. “We have received an estimated 80,000 pounds of paper and a much larger number of electronics,” Rakestraw says. “And over the years, we have had hundreds of volunteers collect litter off of many miles of roadways in the city.” Once a bag is full, volunteers leave it on the roadway, and the public works department comes by to pick them up.
Residents are happy to get rid of items that accumulate in their homes. Once residents arrive at drop-off locations, they are greeted by Thompson High School football players and Beautification Board members, ready to help unload the vehicles. When Coach Freeman arrived in 2014, Rakestraw contacted him about the football players helping. Every year since then players spend their Saturday morning helping their community. “It is a blessing to have them do a lot of the heavy lifting, and they have a good time,” Rakestraw says. “We provide breakfast and lunch to all our wonderful Alabaster volunteers.” Does this community involvement help make Alabaster a cleaner city? “I believe it does,” says Rakestraw. “It’s been proven when areas stay clear of litter, people tend to not litter there.”
Alabaster also has a new community service program through the court system where people earn hours of community service by picking up litter. “The volunteer hours and quantity of litter and electronics recycled become a part of the MS4 agreement, which we are required by the State to comply with for wastewater management,” Rakestraw says. “It shows the city is working to keep our community cleaner, as well as keeping the storm water run-off cleaner.”
The city has a Litter Gitter and a Litter Boom in Buck Creek to catch debris and trash to help keep it clean. As part of Ayden Allred’s Eagle Scout Project, he placed a water distillation station at Buck Creek. The Beautification Board has worked with the school system over the years to educate and promote litter control and recycling.
Safety is an important issue when volunteers pick up litter on the roadways. “Our volunteers are protected by an Alabaster police officer, and at times the fire department will send a battalion chief or fire truck to follow them.” Volunteers commit to cleaning one mile of roadway on each side of their designated area. The city provides trash bags, gloves, safety vests, and water. “We have a wonderful community,” Rakestraw says. “So many with servant’s hearts.”
When and Where
Paper shred and e-cycle event:
- The Protec secure paper shredding and e-cycle event will be hosted from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 20, 2024. This event is for Alabaster residents only. Five file boxes of paper per household. (Free paper shredding, $12 disposal fee per CRT computer monitor, $10 shredding fee per computer hard drive, and a 35 cents per pound fee for all TVs.)
- For a list of items accepted during the e-recycling event, visit https://www.protecrecycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Accepted-Items-for-E-Recycling.pdf
- For a list of items not accepted, visit https://www.protecrecycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Items-not-accepted-for-recycling.pdf
- The location is 10111 Highway 119, Alabaster, AL, 35007
- Volunteer groups who are interested in helping to clean roadways in the city on Saturday, April 6, can also register for a time slot by emailing [email protected]. The deadline to register is March 29.
Free landfill day is March 30 at the Shelby County landfill