Waste Management Grants Keep California Beautiful $10,000 to assist with the Carlsbad Marathon and the "Only My Feet Hit the Ground" Eco-Runner Campaign.

Keep California Beautiful was awarded a $10,000 grant as part of Waste Management’s Think Green® Community Improvement Grants; a nationwide effort that encourages local solutions to improving community relations. Keep California Beautiful was awarded the grant for its work with the 2009 Carlsbad Marathon supporting the “Only My Feet Hit the Ground” campaign they established at the 2008 event. This campaign encourages event participants to be personally responsible for managing their trash and recyclables along the course while achieving their personal record for time. The nearly 2,000 volunteers for the race could never actually get all the litter picked up the day of the race if every runner and spectator littered the course with discarded food and drink containers.

The inaugural program developed by Keep California Beautiful was highly successful, with over 700 of the 10,000 runners signing the Eco Runner Pledge before the race. The city staff and event organizers were pleased with the results because the streets and roadways were cleaner after the event than before. Last year the race diverted over 57% of the overall waste generated. This year Keep California Beautiful will be working with the event organizers to help improve the recycling plan and increase source reduction efforts at the event.

“We are grateful to Waste Management for their generous donation and their vision to work with local organizations to initiate community involvement in improving our environments,” said Christine Flowers-Ewing, executive director of Keep California Beautiful.

“We are pleased to provide this grant to Keep California Beautiful as they work to make the Carlsbad Marathon even greener next year,’ said Ken Ryan, district manager of Waste Management of Carlsbad. “The plan to take the event to the highest level of sustainability is in synch with our goals as an organization, and as a service provider,” he added.

Waste Management is partnering with Keep America Beautiful (KAB) for the third year of the Think Green grants program. More than 575 local KAB affiliates were challenged to present proposals for ambitious projects representing a wide array of stewardship, community outreach and educational projects.