Great American Cleanup in Manatee County

MANATEE -- The bar was already set pretty high for Keep Manatee Beautiful at the 2016 Great American Cleanup in Manatee County from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Last year, 2,230 Keep Manatee Beautiful volunteers collected 19,817 pounds of trash and 5,023 pounds of recyclables, while cleaning 307 miles of roads and highways and 218 miles of shoreline.

Groups including Adopt-A-Highway, Road and Shore also chipped in.

Cleanup and volujnteer numbers were not immediately available Saturday.

Sites in Anna Maria Island, the village of Cortez, Bradenton, Palmetto, Terra Ceia, Upper Manatee River Road and King Ranch Manatee were centers of the cleanup.

National sponsors of the 2016 Great American Cleanup include Altria, BNSF Railway, Dow, The Glad Products Co., Lowe's and Niagara Bottling.

Local sponsors of Keep Manatee Beautiful's Great American Cleanup include Tropicana, which provided beverages.

Volunteers helping on Anna Maria Island, and nearby in the village of Cortez and Palma Sola Causeway were thanked with an Earth Day Party at Manatee Public Beach, 4000 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach, compliments of Anna Maria Island Beach Café.

Information: manateebeautiful.com.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Great American Cleanup in Manatee County ."