Councilman, Nonprofit Urge Residents to Pick Up Litter

On rainy days, Councilman Nick Mosby and Blue Water Baltimore want you to think about where trash on the streets ends up.

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works spends an extra $10 million a year to clean trash from streets and waterways, according to a news release announcing the One Piece litter campaign.

Mosby, who represents parts of Hampden, Medfield and Hoes Heights, has launched the campaign in conjunction with Blue Water Baltimore, a nonprofit that fights to protect area waterways.

The campaign centers around asking residents to pick up one piece of trash a day to help keep area waterways, such as the Stony Run, clean. 

"If you’re bending over to get one piece [of trash], and there’s two or three  pieces right next to it, you’re going to get those too," Mosby said.

The councilman first introduced the idea during a celebration at City Hall of his first 100 days in office. He attributed the genesis for the campaign to a conversation he had with constituent George Peters, who has also launched his own anti-litter initiative

Mosby said he believes the initiative could make a meaningful impact on the amount of litter in the city—if enough people participate.

"If we create this thing, and it becomes a germ [and spreads], and we get real numbers and real amounts of people doing this, it would be great," Mosby said. 

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