Five Years of Litter Cleanup: Treebute’s Sponsor-A-Highway Story
If you've driven westbound on I-64 near Spoede Road in St. Louis, you might have spotted something new: a Sponsor-A-Highway sign with Treebute's name on it.
It's official now, but the work behind it started over five years ago.
How It Began
Since 2021, the Treebute team has organized regular litter cleanups with friends and neighbors along this stretch of highway. The Garden Club - a group of local volunteers dedicated to beautifying public spaces around Frontenac - invited us to join their efforts, in 2022 and we said yes.
Every few months, we show up with trash bags and gloves. It's not glamorous work. But after three years, we've cleared a lot of roadside debris that would otherwise end up in storm drains, streams, and eventually the rivers that run through St. Louis.
The Sponsor-A-Highway sign makes that partnership visible. It's a small thing, but it marks something we're proud of.
Why a Memorial Tree Company Picks Up Litter
People sometimes ask what litter cleanup has to do with memorial trees. Fair question.
The short answer: we care about the places where trees grow.
Treebute exists to help people plant meaningful tributes - trees that become part of a family's yard, part of a neighborhood, part of the landscape someone sees every day. That only works if we also care about the broader environment those trees live in.
Picking up trash along I-64 won't save the planet on its own. But it keeps one stretch of St. Louis a little cleaner. It keeps debris out of the watershed. And it connects us to the community we're part of.
That feels like the right thing for a company like ours to do.
The Frontenac Garden Club
We want to give credit to our partners: the Frontenac Garden Club has been a dedicated collaborator since we started this effort. They're a group of local volunteers focused on beautifying public spaces around Frontenac - maintaining plantings at community entrances and organizing efforts to make the area greener. When we approached them about highway cleanup, they said yes. Three years later, we're still showing up together.
Getting our hands dirty alongside people who care about their neighborhood reminds us why we started this company in the first place.
If you're in the St. Louis area and want to get involved in local beautification efforts, the Garden Club is worth looking into.
What Treebute Does (If You're New Here)
If you found this post through the highway sign and you're wondering what Treebute actually is:
We're a St. Louis company that makes it easy to honor loved ones with memorial trees.
Our Treebute Kits ship directly to you or your recipient with everything needed to plant a meaningful tribute at home - no landscaping experience required. Each kit includes a hardy tree suited for residential yards, a planting and care guide, and personalized message.
People use our kits to honor someone who's passed, give a sympathy gift that outlasts flowers, celebrate milestones like births or weddings, or create a memorial for a beloved pet. Kits include the option to add organic soil blend that makes it safe to plant with cremation ashes - if and when this feels right.
The kits ship directly to you or your recipient. No scheduling, no complicated logistics - just a tree and everything you need to plant it.
Small Acts, Repeated
There's a version of environmentalism that's all about big gestures - carbon offsets, policy changes, dramatic lifestyle overhauls. Those matter. But there's also value in small acts, repeated over time.
Picking up litter a few times a year. Planting a tree in your yard. Choosing a gift that grows instead of one that gets thrown away.
None of these things will single-handedly fix anything. But they add up. And they connect us to the places we live in ways that feel meaningful.
That's the spirit behind our Sponsor-A-Highway sign. It's not a billboard or an advertisement. It's a marker for work we've been doing quietly for three years - and plan to keep doing.
See the Sign
Next time you're heading westbound on I-64, look for us near Spoede Road. And if you're in the Frontenac area, maybe we'll see you at a future cleanup.
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Treebute is based in St. Louis, Missouri. We partner with the Frontenac Garden Club for ongoing highway litter cleanup efforts.