Grime Doesn't Fly at Spiffed-Up Atlanta Airport

They've got a slogan, a "gum-buster" contraption and even a theme song. Now if they can only get millions of jet-weary souls to pick up after themselves.

The people who run the world's busiest airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International, have decided to tidy up the place --- a Herculean task for a facility that sprawls over six concourses and 5.8 million square feet --- and they want the flying public to lend a hand.

"This airport is the hello, the handshake and the goodbye for most passengers," said Robert Kennedy, Hartsfield-Jackson's assistant general manager. "This is what most people traveling through here take away as their impression of Atlanta."

It is these passengers that Kennedy hopes to enlist in the latest phase of the airport's "Operation Clean Sweep," a massive year-old program to put a shine on the aging facility.

The newest phase of the program, called "Opening Day Fresh," began this month and focuses on the 85 million passengers who pass through Hartsfield-Jackson every year as well as the 55,000 people who work there.

The airport has also installed about 250 "spill tents," which passengers or employees can remove from concourse walls and place over spills to alert workers. They're also deploying a specially designed "gum-buster" that removes wads of gum from concourse walkways and sidewalks.

"It obliterates chewing gum adhered to concrete," Kennedy said. "It's absolutely amazing how much gum people deposit here."

About $64 million worth of tile and other shiny new surfaces are being installed along concourse walkways and wall surfaces as part of another program at the airport. Much of that is already in place, and it forms the backdrop for the more elusive "Opening Day Fresh" push, which attempts to reach a very mobile audience with more pressing things than litter control to think about.

Alpharetta resident John Roman, a television producer who flies to New York and back each week, said he's noticed a difference.

"It seems cleaner, and it's obvious they've put in some new surfaces," said Roman. "I used to not be able to find a garbage can. Now it seems like they're everywhere."

Airport officials had to figure out how to get passengers like Roman involved in the cleanup program.

Doug Strachan, the airport's creative innovations manager, thought a song might help.

Strachan, who talks about the cleanup effort with the intensity of a true believer, came up with the idea of taking an old "Peaches & Herb" hit, "Shake Your Groove Thing," writing new lyrics for the music and then broadcasting it throughout the airport twice an hour. The airport also broadcasts public service announcements on hundreds of television screens in waiting areas.

"Music reaches the mind; music reaches the heart," Strachan said. "We wanted something that would resonate with people."

Strachan got permission to rewrite the lyrics and then penned the new words himself.

Part of the new tune goes:

"Let's show the world we're the best

"Working hard to show we care

"The airport must really shine

"Looking good, the way it should."

Kennedy said he's seen passengers dancing to the tune as they make their way along the concourses. Roman said he hasn't noticed the tune during his trips.

The Clean Sweep program began after airport General Manager Ben DeCosta toured several Asian airports and was impressed by their lack of grime.

When he got back to Hartsfield-Jackson he had employees photograph areas that needed serious attention.

"We came back with photographs of things we didn't like," Kennedy said. "We didn't like it, so we knew our passengers didn't."

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