Green Team: Adopt-a-Highway

As a major Southern California environmental consulting firm, LSA is always looking for ways to contribute to helping the environment outside of work hours and the Adopt-a-Highway program a great way for companies to help clear the highways of millions of pounds of trash.

The Adopt-a-Highway program is a 100% minority owned business with approximately 2,000 sponsored segments on highways across the United States. In just 2020, the Litter Service Removal team cleaned 44,988 miles of highway nationwide, removing 178,000 bags of litter equaling a staggering 1.5 million pounds of waste. This is a 64% increase from 2017 and as more companies get on board, the number will continue to soar.

The Adopt-a-Highway Litter Removal Service team picks up the trash at your ramp for a cleaner world – one highway at a time. This saves Caltrans money on cleaning which they can redirect to capital improvement projects for safer and more efficient highways. About 10% of litter collected is recyclable and is recycled properly. Cleaner water is a huge bonus due to trash removal preventing debris/chemicals from getting into our waterways.

LSA has been a proud member of the program since 2014, with a sponsored segment on the I-405 Northbound at the MacArthur on and off ramp that is cleaned 24 times per year. A sign with LSA’s logo embellished on it stands at this location and the change on this small sliver of American highway since LSA became a member has been drastic. In 2020 alone, 111 bags of litter were collected totaling 2,553 pounds, which is over one ton of litter! In 2021, 73 bags of litter totaling 1,679 pounds have been collected on our sponsored segment and through time, the impact has been profound. New vegetation has taken over what was once nothing but dirt and rocks on the side of the on ramp. Existing vegetation is now much greener and healthy compared to the dull color it was before.

In just seven years, the difference on the MacArthur Boulevard on and off ramp is night and day. The location is near LSA’s headquarters office in Irvine and we are ecstatic to see the positive impact on this location that is so close to home.