Clean Green Springfield kicks off fifth year with fresh volunteer and disposal opportunities

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Neat Neighborhoods competition continues in 2025

After nearly 8,000 volunteer hours logged and more than 55 tons of litter collected across Springfield since 2021, the Clean Green Springfield initiative is back in 2025 and celebrating its fifth year of community cleanups and connectedness.

Registration is now open for a new series of City-wide cleanup activities during the months of April and May. Individuals, families, businesses, neighborhoods and service organizations are invited to roll up their sleeves and participate in one or more opportunities including: roadside trash pickups, stream cleanups, neighborhood cleanups, and the Neat Neighborhoods competition.

Special disposal opportunities for bulky item disposal, typically offered in the spring, are now planned for the fall thanks to a grant from Ozarks Headwaters Recycling and Materials Management District. The City is planning a Recycling Extravaganza Saturday, Oct. 4 at the Hammons Field main parking lot. Join Springfield Environmental Services and a host of recycling processors and non-profits for a one-stop event where residents can recycle and donate unwanted items while giving back to the community. Full event details and a list of accepted items will be communicated this summer.

Earlier this year, Springfield Mayor Ken McClure issued a challenge to the community for a cleaner and greener Springfield in 2025. The effort is formalized in a proclamation and is in alignment with Forward SGF, Springfield's comprehensive plan. This year marks not only the fifth anniversary of the Clean Green Springfield initiative, but it also marks the 50th birthday of Springfield's Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill, an asset in keeping Springfield a clean and vital City.

"I'm proud of what the City and partners created and what the community continues to build upon through the Clean Green Springfield initiative," says Mayor Ken McClure. "Taking pride in our community means taking responsibility and each doing our part. It means looking around at our habits as individuals, neighborhoods, organizations, businesses, and as a community and getting involved and making a change."

The Hatch Foundation has generously agreed to fund the Neat Neighborhoods competition again in 2025. Neat Neighborhoods provides the opportunity for neighborhoods to earn points and prizes for cleanup and greenup projects. Projects completed Jan. 1-Nov. 1 will be considered.

The City is streamlining the application process and tweaking the judging criteria, keeping the same categories:
  • Community Planning
  • Public Places, Parks, Roads, Streets and Alleys
  • Green Spaces
  • Tidiness and Litter Control.

Neighborhoods will be awarded prize money based on points earned. Points will be awarded to reward volunteer engagement, time investment and overall impact and improvement. The program will also recognize a "Winning Neat Neighborhood" in each of the four City Council zones and a "Neat Neighborhood of the Year." These designations would not be tied to prize money.

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For details and to sign up your neighborhood, visit cleangreensgf.com and click on the Neat Neighborhoods link under "Participate."

Since 2021, Clean Green Springfield has engaged nearly 4,000 volunteers, committing an estimated 8,000 service hours to collect litter and beautify the community. Volunteers helped remove a total of 3,500 bags or an estimated 55 tons of litter from Springfield streets, neighborhoods, waterways and other public spaces. Over the years, the initiative also helped residents dispose of general trash and bulky items, collecting more than 72 tons for disposal through Clean Green collection events. The initiative has also aimed to divert unnecessary items from taking up valuable space in Springfield's Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill, helping residents recycle nearly 4,500 tires, 1,000 mattresses and hundreds of TVs.

For more information on the Clean Green Springfield initiative and to register, visit cleangreensgf.com.

CLEAN GREEN 2025 EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Registration is now open for Clean Green 2025 volunteer events. All details and a simple registration process can be found at CleanGreenSGF.com.

More than 120 sections of littered roadway and many area streams are in need of cleanup.

Successful Adopt-A-Street, Adopt-A-Stream and Adopt-A-Highway programs in our community engage volunteers to conduct periodic cleanups of their adopted segments. Through these programs committed volunteers keep our city's roadways and streams free from litter and debris. The City provides the trash bags, volunteers say when and where to pick them up when filled.

Register for a one-time cleanup of any of the segments in need and a volunteer coordinator will help connect you up with a roadway or stream segment in need or you can suggest your own cleanup location. Hundreds of dedicated teams already committed to adopted areas are also encouraged to conduct a cleanup during the spring initiative.

Adopt-A-Street includes 251 volunteer organizations adopting more than 139 miles of street. These groups collectively gather 2,000 bags of trash from city roadways per year. Adopt-A-Stream program volunteers remove 500 bags of trash on average from over 10 miles of stream per year.

Join volunteers from Drury University's Greek Life organization to help clean up a section of Kansas Expressway where it meets Jordan Creek near Grand Street. This portion of Kansas Expressway is consistently in need of love due to the large amount of traffic and the flow of stormwater sweeping trash along the roadway and creek.

Clean Green is piloting the City's new GivePulse volunteer portal for volunteer registration and management of the Kansas Expressway Cleanup Event. To register, visit springfieldmo.givepulse.com and select "Point of Pride: Kansas Expressway."

The City of Springfield contracts with Community Partnership of the Ozarks to coordinate free cleanups in registered neighborhoods. Neighborhood residents can dispose of yard waste, old furniture, construction debris and much more free of charge.

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In 2024, neighborhood cleanups served 1,301 households at 8 events thanks to our 208 volunteers!  This cumulatively discarded 170 tons of bulk waste (furniture, mattresses, trash, and other large items), 33 tons of brush, and 27 tons of scrap metal. Due to landfill restrictions, tires, TVs, computer monitors, hazardous waste (paint, oil, varnish, or florescent bults), or any other item that poses a threat to the public cannot be accepted at the cleanups.

The City's registered Neighborhood Associations are hosting Neighborhood Cleanup days 8 a.m. – noon on scheduled Saturdays throughout the Spring. Volunteers are needed to help with a variety of activities, including:
  • Bulky item pickup throughout the neighborhood
  • Clean up alleyways and other sites identified by the neighborhood
  • Help neighbors unload items at the drop-off event

2025 Neighborhood Cleanup Dropoff Event Schedule:

Saturdays, 8 a.m. - noon

April 12 - Meador Park | Seminole-Holland – Meador Park (2600 S. Fremont Ave.)

April 19 – Woodland Heights | Robberson – BNSF Parking Lot (304 W. Chase St.)

May 3 – Greater Parkcrest | Mark Twain – Sunset Church of Christ (1222 W. Sunset St.)

May 10 – Fassnight | West Central – Fassnight Park (1305 S. Main Ave)

May 17 – Phelps Grove | University Heights – MSU Parking Lot #22 (1003 E. Normal St.)

May 31 – Bissett | Heart of the Westside – Complete Electronics Recycling Lot (2935 W Chestnut Expy)

Neat Neighborhoods is back in 2025!  Patterned after the Tidy Towns tradition rooted in Ireland since 1958. This community challenge has now found its way to Springfield, thanks to the Hatch Foundation, marking the start of an exciting competition aimed towards a cleaner, greener and happier city.

The Hatch Foundation has generously agreed to fund the Neat Neighborhoods competition again in 2025. Neat Neighborhoods provides the opportunity for neighborhoods to earn points and prizes for cleanup and greenup projects. Projects completed Jan. 1-Nov. 1 will be considered.

The City is streamlining the application process and tweaking the judging criteria, keeping the same categories:
  • Community Planning
  • Public Places, Parks, Roads, Streets and Alleys
  • Green Spaces
  • Tidiness and Litter Control.

Neighborhoods will be awarded prize money based on points earned. Points will be awarded to reward volunteer engagement, time investment and overall impact and improvement. The program will also recognize a "Winning Neat Neighborhood" in each of the four City Council zones and a "Neat Neighborhood of the Year." These designations would not be tied to prize money.

For details and to sign up your neighborhood, visit cleangreensgf.com and click on the Neat Neighborhoods link under "Participate."

The City recently received a grant from Ozark Headwaters Recycling and Materials Management District to host a city-wide recycling and donation event. A lot of organizing and preparation is going into making this event a reality in the fall of 2025.

Clean Green Recycling Extravaganza
Saturday, Oct. 4 at Hammon's Field Parking Lot
Here's your chance to recycle and donate those unused items. Join the Springfield Environmental Services and a host of recycling processors and non-profits for a one-stop event where you can get rid of your stuff while giving back to your community.

Full event details and list of items accepted to come this summer.

To learn more about volunteer and disposal opportunities and register to volunteer, visit cleangreensgf.com.

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Media Contact: Communications Coordinator Kristen Milam at 573-819-3713 or [email protected].

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