Trash Bash!
INDOT workers, Adopt-A-Highway volunteers, and citizen and community groups join forces each Spring to clean Indiana highways during Trash Bash!, an annual state cleanup event designed to beautify Hoosier roadsides by removing roadside litter and debris.
During the first day of each Trash Bash! weekend, INDOT maintenance staff across the state take a day away from their everyday tasks of maintaining the roads, bridges, and roadsides to focus on roadside litter collection.
Because of safety concerns, INDOT staff focus on roads with high traffic volume, such as interstates and divided highways, so that citizen and community groups can safely focus on lower traffic volume, two-lane roads.
How Trash Bash! Works
As with the Adopt-A-Highway program, once the identified highway section is approved, participating Trash Bash! crew members are required to receive a safety briefing and complete injury waiver forms before beginning work.
Participating groups need to provide transportation to and from the adopted section of road and the manpower for the cleanup. INDOT will loan the cleanup crews safety vests and provide trash bags. There are no participation fees.
Upon completion of the highway section cleanup, Trash Bash! participates may either:
- Report the amount of litter collected and/or recycled
- Leave the filled trash bags safely along the roadside and contact the local INDOT facility with the highway location so maintenance staff may collect the bags
Whether it's a one-quarter mile or a 10-mile section of roadway, INDOT welcomes the assistance of citizen and community groups in this statewide highway beautification effort.
INDOT employees help coordinate Trash Bash! activities in each of INDOT’s six districts. Contact INDOT Customer Service at 855-463-6848, INDOT4U.com, or INDOT@indot.in.gov for more information.