Clean Memphis

Clean Memphis was started in 2008 to address blight and litter concerns throughout the city. Since then, it has grown to include an extensive environmental education program and the restaurant sustainability certification Project Green Fork. Vision: Engaged Communities. Sustainable City. A Better Memphis. Mission: Educating youth, engaging leadership, and empowering communities to sustain a cleaner Memphis. Clean Memphis works toward this mission through three key programs: 1) Community Zone Partnerships and Sweeps Program - Clean Memphis supports community partnerships to address neighborhood-specific cleanup and blight concerns. The Clean Memphis Zones Strategy breaks the city into sma... read more Clean Memphis was started in 2008 to address blight and litter concerns throughout the city. Since then, it has grown to include an extensive environmental education program and the restaurant sustainability certification Project Green Fork. Vision: Engaged Communities. Sustainable City. A Better Memphis. Mission: Educating youth, engaging leadership, and empowering communities to sustain a cleaner Memphis. Clean Memphis works toward this mission through three key programs: 1) Community Zone Partnerships and Sweeps Program - Clean Memphis supports community partnerships to address neighborhood-specific cleanup and blight concerns. The Clean Memphis Zones Strategy breaks the city into smaller geographic areas to facilitate the creation of cohesive and active neighborhood groups. The primary role of Clean Memphis is to help establish connections between residents, businesses, churches, schools, community centers, and other local stakeholders. Active neighborhood groups collaborate on quarterly cleanup projects and develop strategies to address blighted properties in their community. During 2018, Clean Memphis facilitated 110 community projects that resulted in 50,000 lbs. of litter removed from the streets through 11,000+ volunteer hours. Projects included park and school campus improvements, community gardens, pocket parks and clean and safe pathways to schools. The Sweeps program utilizes two inmate crews to cleanup high-profile areas around the city and Shelby County. During 2018, the crews removed 90,000 lbs. of litter and 1,500 tires from the streets. 2) Environmental Education and Engagement - Clean Memphis educators provide free comprehensive environmental education programming and service learning opportunities to schools in Shelby County. Educators focus on watershed health, recycling, water quality, energy conservation, ecosystems, and more. All activities are designed to be hands on and connect abstract environmental concepts to student experiences living in Memphis. One of the education programs is the Sustainable Schools Challenge, a local sustainability certification for schools in the greater Memphis area. Participating schools create cultures around environmental literacy and sustainability through behavior changes and student-led campaigns. Through March of the 2018-2019 school year, Clean Memphis educators worked with 26 schools with 130 classroom visits and over 7,500 student interactions. Part of the goal of the Clean Memphis environmental education program is to develop long-term partnerships and build on environmental concepts. Through the Sustainable Schools Challenge, three schools are working on Gold level certification. 3) Project Green Fork - The mission of Project Green Fork is to contribute to a sustainable Mid-South by helping reduce environmental impacts, with a focus on strengthening homegrown restaurants. There are currently 39 PGF certified restaurants in Shelby County and DeSoto County. Project Green Fork certified restaurants are required to have a recycling program, compost kitchen waste, use green cleaning products, promote energy conservation, keep their space litter-free, and use compostable/biodegradable disposable products. To date, PGF restaurants have recycled 700 tons of plastic, glass, and aluminum, 1,500 tons of paper and cardboard, and composted over half a million gallons of food waste.