Fort Worth is competing in first-ever litter ‘cleanup challenge.’ How you can help
Like many North Texans stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Meleah Smith was determined to spend as much time outdoors as possible. The 23-year-old Mansfield native traveled across the Metroplex last year to visit parks in Arlington, Plano and Cedar Hill.
There was a common theme at the hiking trails she visited: piles of litter left behind by visitors, some of which clearly hadn’t been touched for decades.
“We were thinking: Man, this would be so much better if there wasn’t so much litter everywhere,” Smith said. “We were finding ourselves saying that at every park and thinking someone needs to do something about this.”
What started as a few park cleanups in Arlington has transformed into the Texas Eco Alliance, led by Smith and a group of friends passionate about making sustainability and recycling efforts more accessible to North Texans. The organization has picked up traction in Fort Worth, where Smith has connected with leaders of the Sierra Club chapter and collected bags of litter at Cobb Park.
Their latest event, which was held Saturday at Eugene McCray Park in east Fort Worth, is not the first time Smith has cleaned the area along the edge of Lake Arlington. The group plans to return until they make more progress with trash in waterways, she said.
“It just makes you feel good to make some sort of difference, even if it’s small and even if not everyone sees it,” Smith said. “It’s still nice to know that you’ve improved this area for someone.”
Smith is far from alone in picking up the pace on cleanup efforts at parks and neighborhoods across the region. From now until Oct. 31, at least 15 cities across Dallas-Fort Worth are participating in the first-ever North Texas Community Cleanup Challenge. Among them are Arlington, Fort Worth, Mansfield, Denton and Grapevine.
Led by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the “friendly” competition will conclude with an award recognizing the community that cleaned up the most trash per resident. That number will be calculated using data points like volunteer hours, number of volunteers and the estimated weight of litter collected.
Tarrant County has historically led the way in litter collection among the 16 counties in the region, according to data from the nonprofit organization Keep Texas Beautiful. Tarrant cleanups reported collecting 716,484 pounds of trash between 2015 and 2020, compared to 625,263 in Dallas and 543,349 in Collin.
Litter and illegal dumping of trash are not only unsightly, but also harmful to the health of DFW’s watersheds as well as the humans and animals who depend on that water, according to Crysta Guzman, an environmental planner for the Council of Governments. Littering on U.S. roadsides has decreased by 54% over the past decade, but trash in waterways continues to be a massive problem, Guzman added.
During an August presentation with community leaders participating in the challenge, she said litter and debris can clog storm drains and contribute to flooding issues.
“The litter that then makes its way into our streams, rivers and lakes or other local water bodies, can impact the health of the drinking water sources of many Texans and could ultimately find its way to the Gulf of Mexico,” Guzman said.
A task force focused on stormwater management came up with the idea for the challenge in 2019, but it was delayed to 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. If all goes according to plan, the challenge is likely to return next spring and in 2023, Guzman said.
Participation isn’t limited to organized local events or cleanups organized by city officials, Guzman said. Individuals can submit data, including the number of trash bags collected and their estimated size, to the cleanup challenge’s website to make sure their event is counted toward their city’s total.
Keep Fort Worth Beautiful has opened its own form, available at bit.ly/FWCleanupForm, for residents to submit data on their individual cleanups. While all cleanup activities must occur between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31, organizers can submit data through Nov. 30.
Upcoming cleanup events in Fort Worth include the Tarrant Regional Water District’s Trash Bash, which will focus on eight cleanup locations along the Trinity River from Sept. 18-19. Fort Worth is hosting its annual Neighborhood Litter Stomp event on Oct. 16, with three cleanup hubs at Eugene McCray Park, Lake Como Park and Marion Sansom Park.
Arlington residents looking for organized cleanup events in the next month can contact Dan Withers with the parks department at dan.withers@arlingtontx.gov, according to a city press release.
The Texas Eco Alliance will continue to host its own smaller, weekly cleanups across Fort Worth and Tarrant County, Smith said. While Smith is still working to build an army of volunteers, she has been encouraged by other environmental groups, which are often shocked to find out that Smith and her co-leaders are in their 20s and 30s.
“Every other group that we’ve seen or worked with, they’re all older than us, but it’s my generation that I thought would be out here doing it,” Smith said. “We just saw what needed to be done, and this is the way we can inspire other people to make a difference.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
