PennDOT offers a wide variety of beautification programs in a concerted effort to reduce the costs of removing unsightly litter from Pennsylvania's state-maintained roadways.
Your Safety is Important
PennDOT will provide access to safety training for volunteers as well as gloves, safety vests, trash bags, and, if requested, highway warning signs for use during litter pick-ups.
Volunteers must be at least 8 years old, and participants under 18 must be accompanied by adults.
For your safety, the Pennsylvania State Police will be notified of all scheduled events.
Learn more about safety training here.
How to Get Involved
Contact your local PennDOT County Maintenance Office. An Adopt-a-Highway Coordinator or Adopt and Beautify Roadside Specialist will assist you on the terms of the program and help you select a two-mile stretch of state-maintained road to adopt or an area to beautify.
Additional resources
Volunteers beautify roadsides two miles at a time. You or your civic or volunteer group sign a two-year agreement to pick up litter at least two times a year. In return, PennDOT posts recognition signs along the adopted roadway giving you or your group full credit for your efforts.
Program Facts
- Adoption Time Length: 2 years
- Area Size and Location: State highway right-of-ways, including interchange areas, traffic islands or two-mile sections of roadway
- Age Requirements: Participants must be 8 years of age or older. There must be at least one adult (18 years of age or older) per eight minors (17 years of age or younger). Minors must have parental permission.
- Events Per Year: Minimum of two
- PennDOT will provide: Safety vests, trash bags, work gloves, "Litter Crew Ahead" signs (by request) and other equipment as required by your PennDOT representative
- PennDOT will: For your safety the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) will be notified of all scheduled events.
- PennDOT will: Pick up bagged litter from the roadside and post signs in recognition of your efforts.
Get Started
Resources
- Safety Training Videos
- Adopt A Highway Participation Terms and Conditions (PDF)
- County Contacts (PDF)
The Adopt & Beautify (A&B) and Keystone Pollinator Habitat (KPH) programs provide opportunities for local citizens and community organizations to beautify sites they select and design for the purposes of enhancing the beauty of the roadside, providing a positive first impression, providing habitat for native pollinators, and exhibiting community pride. Volunteers expand upon PennDOT's planting efforts along our state-maintained roadways under a minimum two-year commitment. In return, PennDOT places a sign recognizing the group for its efforts. Typical A&B projects involve the planting and routine maintenance of one or more beds along a roadway or within an interchange. This is a wonderful way to say, "Welcome to Pennsylvania and our community."
Keystone Pollinator Habitat
Decreasing pollinator (butterfly and bee) populations have raised public awareness and interest in pollinator conservation. Transportation rights of way can provide habitat for these species. The KPH Program is an adaptation of A&B that provides an opportunity for concerned citizens to plant pollinator habitat. Flower beds planted with native perennial blooming plants and milkweeds or more expansive seeded pollinator meadow designs are possible.
Safety First
Each participant is required to view online safety videos before acceptance into, and participation in, the A&B or KPH Beautification programs.
Publications & Forms
- Adopt and Beautify Program Information (PDF)
- Adopt and Beautify Program Agreement (PDF)
- Adopt and Beautify Fact Sheet (PDF)
- Roadside Beautification Manual (PDF)
Related Links
While PennDOT's Adopt A Highway program relies on volunteer groups to maintain adopted sections of roadway, the Sponsor A Highway program involves businesses and interested parties securing agreements with Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corp. or Adopt A Highway Litter Removal Service of America. These vendors use their skilled maintenance forces to perform roadside litter removal. The sponsored roadway will have signs placed that recognize the sponsors.
Find more information on becoming a highway sponsor by visiting the vendors' websites at Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corp or Adopt A Highway Litter Removal Service of America Inc.
Litter Brigades are comprised of two groups:
- Junior Litter Brigades
- Adult Litter Brigades
The Junior Litter Brigade offers juvenile offenders the opportunity to give back to their communities through litter pick-up. Offenders earn $14 per lane mile per event, which is reimbursed to County Probation Offices. PennDOT will provide gloves, bags, and vests, and, upon notification, will pick up bags collected.
Adult Litter Brigades are administered by County Magistrates through County Probation Offices. Offenders (DUI, DWI, etc.) receive community service sentencing as part of their adjudication. PennDOT provides gloves, bags, and vests. This is not a reimbursable event.
These programs are not mandated and are provided on a voluntary basis. Find your local contact to learn more.
Volunteers beautify Pennsylvania in an annual statewide event occurring from March 1 through May 31. During this time, thousands of Pennsylvanians take to the streets, parks, and waterways in their towns and cities to collect the unsightly trash that litters Pennsyvlania's environment.
Although not a PennDOT program, PennDOT lends support to Pick Up Pennsylvania (PUP) by providing gloves, safety vests, and trash bags to volunteers. (For safety considerations, state routes to be cleaned must be pre-approved by county managers, and litter pickup may not be provided by PennDOT).
To organize activities in your community and for additional information, contact PUP by visiting gacofpa.org.