Latest news with #KeepLouisianaBeautiful
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Volunteers keep thousands of recyclables items out of Louisiana landfills
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Volunteers prevented thousands of recyclable items from increasing landfill waste during Love the Boot Week 2025. Keep Louisiana Beautiful partnered with Coca-Cola to spearhead the event across 27 parishes. The event diverted 16,503 bottles and cans from landfills, an increase of 23 percent from last year. 'We are grateful to Coca-Cola for continuing to support recycling during Love the Boot Week,' said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. 'When the recycling loop is completed, cans and bottles stay out of the landfill and can be used to create new products. It's exciting to see this recycling effort take off, and we look forward to seeing it grow each year.' More Louisiana News A record 26,935 individuals volunteered for 81,852 hours and 1,408 events in all 64 parishes, collecting 514 tons of litter. In addition to litter abatement volunteers, they planted 1,204 trees, 3,672 plants, and refurbished 477 gardens during Love the Boot Week community beautification efforts. Caddo, Bossier, and DeSoto Parishes participated in the clean-up events with support from the Coca-Cola and Osprey Initiative, which facilitates recycling. 'We at Coca-Cola are proud to have been doing business and employing people in Louisiana for nearly 125 years. With over 2,300 employees from Shreveport to New Orleans, we are deeply committed to preserving our beloved Sportsman's Paradise,' said Scott McCallister, VP of Coca-Cola UNITED'S West Region. 'We are thrilled to see the strong interest and participation in the recycling efforts we support through Keep Louisiana Beautiful's Love the Boot Week. This initiative helps us to recover packaging to then produce new bottles and cans for the beverages our consumers love.' Recycling is not just a beautification measure, it has many community, environmental, and health benefits as well. According to the EPA, recycling also reduces waste sent to landfills and incinerators, conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals. It increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of material. Prevents pollution by reducing the need to mine raw materials. Recycling conserves energy, supports American manufacturing, and conserves valuable resources. It also creates jobs in the U.S. recycling and manufacturing sectors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill expanding ticket writing power of Louisiana park rangers advances
BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A Louisiana lawmaker wants to broaden the state's approach to litter abatement by expanding the power of state park rangers. House Bill 173, authored by Representative John Illg of Jefferson Parish, seeks to expand the ticket-writing powers for park rangers. Current law allows state park rangers to write tickets for litter offenses within the park only. Ticketed offenses range from simple littering to intentional acts of littering. Tickets would be mailed and handled by an administrative law judge rather than bogging down district attorneys' offices. Dumpsite violations or gross littering caught on camera will be investigated and treated as a criminal matter, under current Louisiana law. Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser testified before the committee to express support for Illg's bill and highlight the work of those who volunteer for Keep Louisiana Beautiful litter abatement efforts. Bill banning ballon releases in Louisiana breezes through House committee More than ever before, this has turned into a movement only about 20% of Louisianans litter, but boy, they litter a lot,' Nungesser said. 'And a lot of these dumpsites, when we get a call by the time Wildlife and Fishery or the sheriff's office can get there, they're gone. They don't have the manpower sometimes to look through the trash and find those receipts. And so where we have state parks in that area, our rangers are willing, when we get the call to go out and assess the problem and write the tickets.' Nungesser said expanding ticket-writing power is an effort to better enforce Louisiana's current litter laws. To ensure that local district courts are not overwhelmed with litterbug case reviews, there is an amended provision that 'creates the authority for the department to assess civil fines using the adjudicatory process through the Division of Administrative Law. When asked about the safety of the public and the rangers by Representative Neil Riser, Nungesser stated that they undergo the same training as law enforcement officers. 'It's more so for those dumpsites that continue over and over and over. We're actually going to be – this will allow us to put cameras out as wildlife fishery does, but they have many other tasks so this will allow us to put some out and respond to local governments that are reaching out to us time and time again,' Nungesser said. The enforcement will focus on communities with nearby state parks, allowing for a more responsive approach to local entities that work diligently to maintain the cleanliness of those areas. 'If you get a ticket, you're 80% less likely to litter. And I think through that and the added cleanups we're doing and education, we're going to see one day when we don't have to spend the $92 million we spent last year cleaning up after the fact,' Nungessor said. Nungesser and Illg said that violators would be subject to a fine or a day of litter cleanup for those who can not pay. The bill, passed through the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment with amendments, will be sent to the House floor for discussion. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Non-profit residents, staff cleanup Providence House campus
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) —A Shreveport nonprofit committed to serving homeless families with children participated in Love the Boot Week by cleaning up downtown. Providence House said residents, volunteers, and staff rolled up their sleeves to pull weeds, refresh rock beds, and pick up 23 bags of litter around the campus. 'As a proud downtown resident, we recognize that maintaining a clean and beautiful environment benefits not only our organization and its residents, but also our downtown neighbors and area visitors.' Cash prize for double-city wide cleanup, Shreveport and Bossier City 'What started as a simple cleanup became a great reminder that when we come together with purpose, even small actions can have a powerful impact on our neighborhood and community,' said Interim Executive Director Lakeisha Florence. Susan Russell, Executive Director of Keep Louisiana Beautiful, said, 'This event not only helps to improve communities, but it also brings awareness to our state's litter problem. Only when we work together and change our behaviors will Louisiana see a reduction in litter.' In May, Keep Louisiana Beautiful will release a report detailing the impact of its cleanup and beautification events. The report will include total events, volunteers, bags of trash collected, pounds of trash collected, and other key statistics. It will be available at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Louisiana launches ‘Love the Boot Week 2025' for litter cleanup
BATON ROUGE, La. (KTAL/KMSS)—On Friday, Baton Rouge kicked off a week dedicated to litter removal and beautification throughout Louisiana. More Louisiana News The nonprofit 'Keep Louisiana Beautiful' and Lieutenant Billy Nungesser kicked off 'Love the Boot Week 2025'. According to Nungesser, over 1,000 cleanups are planned across all 64 parishes from April 5th through the 13th. 'If you pick up litter for a day, you're about 80% less likely to litter again. So we're making progress,' Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. 'This is no longer just a week cleanup, it is a movement. And we're gonna keep our foot on the gas until we have a clean Louisiana and put the paradise back in Sportsman's Paradise.' According to Keep Louisiana Beautiful, during 'Love the Boot Week' last year, 19,441 individuals volunteered, and 347 tons of litter were removed. 'It really is about engaging everyone like everyone has a responsibility to solve this problem. The good news is it's 100 % solvable, right? And so if everybody just took care of their space, right? Their neighborhood, their business, their community, then we could solve this problem,' said Susan Russell, Executive Director of Keep Louisiana Beautiful. Volunteers focused on community beautification, planting 921 trees, and refurbishing 366 gardens. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now 'We know that having a dirty, littered community decreases community pride. It leads to more criminal activity. It's unhealthy for our environment, not only for us as residents but our wildlife. We also know that it's an economic development and tourism problem,' said Courtney Hornsby, a Keep Louisiana Beautiful Board Member. 'Studies have shown time and time again that new businesses or new people do not want to move into your community or visit your community if it's dirty, if it's littered, if it looks like no one cares about it. And So this is a problem that touches every Louisiana state agency, every municipality, every corner of our state.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Statewide cleanup effort during Love the Boot Week
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser stopped by the WGNO studio to talk about Love the Boot week. Why do we need the love the boot effort? Because obviously we're not loving the boot too much. 'We got cameras out there catching you. Every one of those people got a ticket,' said Nungesser. 'Now you can report litterers by calling the hotline.' Learn the 'roots of our culture' at free Congo Square Rhythms Festival The hotline is 855-LA-Litter. The Love the Boot effort is one of 'the state's largest litter removal and beautification projects.' 'We moved Keep Louisiana Beautiful under my office four years ago. Every year we've seen an increase. Started out about 40 groups last year, 750 groups. Our goal is 1,000 groups. We are at 920 this morning. Your family, your organization, your school, your church,' said Nungesser. Why is it important? 'If you pick up litter for the day, you're 80% less likely to litter again. And so it's important to get more people involved. If you can't do it during Love the Boot Week, you can go to your local library anytime and check out Tom's Invest and clean up your neighborhood,' said Nungesser. Groups can sign up by visiting the Love the Boot website. Once done, report how much was picked so that officials can get an idea of what was cleaned up. Want to see your favorite Disney characters all in one show? All on ice? In 2024, Louisiana spent over $90 million cleaning up litter. 'If we do a little bit more work, education, clean up, ticketing people. On the front end, we can save a lot of money on the back end and use it for better things,' said Nungesser. Love the Boot Week runs from April 5 through April 13. 'Sign up today. Help us clean up our state.'Statewide cleanup effort during Love the Boot Week McConnell: US headed for 'Russia wins, America loses' headline on Ukraine deal Trump holds 'productive call' with new Canadian prime minister Want to see your favorite Disney characters all in one show? All on ice? Trump: House should take up Senate-passed DC funding fix immediately Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
