Environmental Committee

Who We Are
The Kings Contrivance Environmental Committee is a group of volunteers dedicated to keeping the open space, roads, and neighborhoods of Kings Contrivance litter free.

What We Do

  1. Organize Community Clean-ups

    Since 2002, Kings Contrivance has hosted community clean-ups each year. One clean up event takes place on Earth Day in the spring and a second clean up is scheduled in the fall. Each clean-up is from 10am-1pm on a Saturday.

    This is a grassroots effort to keep the streets, paths and open space in our neighborhoods litter-free. It is a small amount of time to volunteer to make a huge difference in our community. The events are fun and family-friendly. For our Earth Day event, we provide refreshments, free t-shirts and have a raffle for gift certificates to local merchants. We welcome individuals, families, and groups, such as the scouts, high school clubs and church groups. We provide community service certificates to those who need them. Please contact Amherst House for information on the next clean up event!

    • Clean-Up Facts

      Storm Drain Stenciling

      After every rainfall, trash, pesticides, gasoline, and oil enter the county storm drains in addition to normal rain runoff. From there it flows into our local streams, rivers and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. You can do something to help encourage people to stop putting these harmful substances down our drains by stenciling a storm drain. It is a simple act that can have a huge impact on our local environment.

      The process is easy and takes two hours or less. Amherst House has the stencils and many of the other supplies needed to complete this project.

      The complete directions for stenciling a storm drain and county forms needed to request approval for the project can be downloaded from this site.

      Download the storm drain stencil project information
      Download the stencil instructions

      Also see the following websites for more information:

      For more information about the Kings Contrivance storm drain stenciling program, please contact Hillary Bierce at hillarybierce@yahoo.com or Anne Brinker at Amherst House at (410) 381-9600.

Interesting Facts

  • In the U.S., 4.39 pounds of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year are created by the average person.
  • Only about one-tenth of all solid garbage in the United States gets recycled.
  • Almost 1/3 of the waste generated the U.S. is packaging.
  • Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
  • Americans throw away enough aluminum cans to rebuild our commercial air fleet every three months, and enough iron and steel to supply all our nation's automakers every day.
  • In the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays. Four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags.
  • Americans receive almost 4 million tons of junk mail every year. Most of it winds up in landfills.
  • Americans toss out enough paper & plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times.
  • U.S. businesses now use about 21 million tons of paper every year. That's about 175 pounds of paper for each American.
  • New York City alone throws out enough garbage each day to fill the Empire State Building.
  • As of 1992, 14 billion pounds of trash were dumped into ocean annually around the world.
  • Forty-three thousand tons of food is thrown out in the United States each day.
  • Americans throw out about 270 million tires every year.
  • http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/wasteFacts.html

Links to More Information

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