Clean Jordan Lake Donated Supplies, Service & Labor Top $1 mil
Donated supplies, services and labor are now shown in real-time on our RESULTS page as a companion to our real-time tracking of trash cleanup accomplishments. With very conservative estimating, their value has now exceeded $1 million!
The data to make estimates come from a spreadsheet that is linked to the website by a Google Data Studio Scorecard. For each trash cleanup, each hour donated by each volunteer is assigned a value of $20. The bags are kindly donated by the NC DOT and valued at $0.40 per bag. The tipping fee for disposal of trash bags is waived by Chatham County Department of Solid Waste and Recycling and worth $65 per ton with each bag estimated to hold 20 lb of trash. Chatham County also donates a large trash dumpster that we keep at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters off Jordan Dam Rd in Moncure. Its rental value including hauling is estimated at $500. Each replacement is recorded on our spreadsheet. Tires are recycled through grants from Bridgestone America’s Tire4Ward Program, a service valued at $3 per tire. Pontoon boats provided both by volunteers and by the Army Corps of Engineers to haul trash are also recorded on our spreadsheet for each cleanup; the half-day rental cost including operator would be $340. Supplies include trash grabbers ar $20 per pair and gloves at $1.20 per pair, the costs being covered by donations from the general public.
The tireless efforts of Clean Jordan Lake’s leaders also deserve to be valued. Our Cleanup Coordinator handles inquiries and assigns managers who then scout in advance the cleanup route, create maps to guide volunteers and lead cleanups. As a simple example of time invested, it’s not uncommon to exchange 20 emails with each group in planning of their cleanup. Other volunteers manage our Adopt-A-Shoreline and Adopt-A-Feeder Stream Programs that now totals 34 groups, deal with social media, keep financial records, promote trash prevention, etc. We estimate 10 hours per week on average and value this conservatively at $50 per hour.