Allegheny CleanWays was formed in 2000 as an all-volunteer chapter under the statewide organization, PA CleanWays (now Keep PA Beautiful), with the mission to engage and empower people to eliminate litter and illegal dumping in Allegheny County. Following a reorganization in 2005, the local chapter was incorporated as PA CleanWays of Allegheny County, Inc., obtained 501(c)(3) status, and was designated as an affiliate of PA CleanWays. By then, the organization had paid staff and a governing board. In 2007, we adopted the simpler name “Allegheny CleanWays.”
Over the years, Allegheny CleanWays has been instrumental in engaging and partnering with community groups to remove more than 5.4 million pounds of debris, including more than 43,000 tires, from vacant lots, wooded hillsides, alleyways, roadsides, streams, and riverbanks. Each year hundreds of volunteers work with us to remove trash from the landscape to improve community health and vitality. While we continue to partner with an expanding list of organizations to do the cleanup work, we also work on litter and illegal dumping prevention, conduct cleanup coordinator workshops, and have become active in advocating for policies to reduce the amount of trash produced, such as reducing the use of single-use plastics and making it easier for consumers to recycle electronics (e.g., TVs, microwaves, stereos).