The Kansas City District of the Missouri Department of Transportation was honored by the Mid-America Regional Council on Nov. 23 for supporting and furthering an environmentally sustainable community.

MoDOT also recently joined the "Community Beautiful" project, an outreach program through the Jackson County Cleanup Coalition (JCCC), a collaborative effort of MoDOT and Jackson County communities working together to prevent and cleanup litter within our county.

The department strives every day to protect, conserve, restore and enhance our natural resources, while dealing with the challenges of planning, designing, building, maintaining and operating a complex transportation infrastructure.

We have taken several strides in recycling and conservation. For example, did you know MoDOT uses more ethanol and biodiesel fuel a year - three million gallons - than all other state agencies combined. That’s enough gas to drive a car to Mars and back.