Saving the Inner Harbor from trash
THE KELLETT TRASH-CATCHING DEVICE. (Sun photo by Amy Davis.)
How should Baltimore stop the litter that floods the Inner Harbor every time it rains? It's not coming from tourists in paddle boats. It's from local residents, throwing plastic soda bottles and styrofoam cups onto the street. Rain washes the junk down storm drains, where it flows unfiltered right to the city's crown jewel -- the waterfront.
In today's paper, I have a story about a local entrepreneur who has invented a water wheel powered trash-grabbing device that has proven itself remarkably effective at catching the litter as it pours out of the largest outfall into the harbor. Yesterday, after a major rain storm, John Kellett's trash interceptor prevented a mountain of trash from scattering across the harbor. The water beside the National Aquarium and Harborplace was remarkably clear yesterday, with none of the floating cups or bottles common after rain storms.
Yes, Kellett had to show up with a rake at dawn to unclog bunches of sticks. The machine isn't totally self-automated. But perhaps manpower was worth it. After all, the city's downtown businesses pay dozens of full-time employees to walk around all day picking up trash. Paying one guy to poke a machine that captures seven tons of garbage in a few hours seems like a bargain by comparison.
But the city of Baltimore is still evaluating Kellett's clean machine. And even though Mayor Sheila Dixon has a major program of "clean and green," the administration doesn't know if it wants to buy the Kellett wheel, at a price of $375,000 -- or order more of the devices. Meanwhile, waterfront businesses think the garbage grabber is fantastic, because it prevents customers from being grossed out by floating trash. They want more of the devices.
But there is another school of thought out there. Some say the city shouldn't try to pay to install filters like this at the stormwater outfalls (as other cities do) because it's too expensive and impractical. The line of thought is that paying for an ad campaign to get people to stop littering would be more effective.
Kellett's perspective is we should do both. Certainly anti-littering campaigns are a good idea, especially ones aimed at children, so they develop good lifelong habits. But an ad campaign will never be 100 percent effective. So why not install Kellett machines AND air a bunch of anti-littering ads?
The fact is, the city has already required taxpayers to pay high costs associated with cleaning up less visible water pollution. City residents are paying almost $1 billion in higher water and sewer bills to fix up the city's leaky sewage system. That's good for the Chesapeake Bay, but it may not have as much of an impact on Baltimore's waterfront businesses (who need an attractive harbor to attract customers) as Kellett's $375,000 gizmo. The city also spent about $10 million to rebuild the Stony Run stream in Roland Park, adding lines of boulders along the banks and small stone dams to slow the stream and prevent erosion. Advocates of trash filters wonder why a project like this deserves funding -- but not less expensive devices that make a dramatic visual improvement at the Inner Harbor.
Readers, what do you think about this debate?
Patrick Bodell of Charles Village wrote that any ad campaign would have to focus on the tastes of young people. "I live on East 29th Street in Harwood (Charles Village) and see people litter every day. I see parents stop to pick up their children at Barclay Elementary in front of my house and push their garbage into the street as they get out of their car. I see people walk to the curb to deposit their litter in the street. I see people walk to the storm drain and throw their garbage in. I talk to these people (often at the risk of my own personal safety) and my comments fall on deaf ears.
I am a block leader and member of the Harwood Community Association and personally pick up 2-3 30-gallon trash bags of litter every week just on my block. My neighbors watch me but after two years, have still not caught on. In addition, we have supplemental sanitation services provided by a tax we pay to the CVCBD and still the street is littered with trash. Again, I try to talk to people but can't seem to connect. And it's apparent why - you can walk/drive on any street in any neighborhood in Baltimore and there is litter everywhere. It is accepted and seemingly passed down from one generation to the next. I have lived in Boston, Chicago, Miami, and D.C. and this is by far the filthiest city I have ever lived in.
I will be moving soon to Rochester, NY, where my wife has accepted a new job. But I want to offer some advice to any group looking to spend money on advertising around this issue. First, don't appeal to right and wrong because these people do not think that littering is wrong. Second, do not threaten them with the law because these people have no fear of the law and no respect for the police. Third, don't speak to the damage they are causing to the Chesapeake Bay as it might as well be a million miles away from these neighborhoods and irrelevant to most of their daily struggles to survive. Rather, try to recruit hip-hop, rap or sports stars/celebrities to send the message that littering is not cool. Find people that the litter bugs respect and admire and emulate to send a message that it's not cool to trash Baltimore and not cool to live in filth. I don't know if I'm articulating this very well but the point is - these people would laugh their heads off at the old ads with a crying Indian," Bodell wrote.
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Reader John Martin says that part of the answer is for Maryland to pass a bottle bill, creating cash rewards for people to pick up and return bottles and cans. Many other states, including Michigan, already have such laws.
Martin wrote: "As I look at photos of floating trash captured by booms and in one case being removed by a water-powered conveyor, I cannot help thinking thatif there were a five cent deposit on each of the bottles among the trash, they wouldn't be there ("Path to a cleaner harbor," May 13).
Ask residents in states where they charge deposits on beverage containers and they will tell you that there are no bottles littering their roadways, parking lots or streams and harbors.
And yet the General Assembly once again failed to pass a bottle bill during this year's legislative session.
We could reduce litter by a large percentage if we had a bottle bill and banned plastic shopping bags.
These two items alone make up three quarters of the trash in the harbor and the streams that flow into it."
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
Comments
I believe Martin raises some valid points about a bottle bill. In addition, some of the poorest and consequently most litter-prone areas would benefit from this program. It may even cut down on theft by desperate drug users that turn in stolen metal to feed their habit.
Posted by: Rob Goszkowski | May 13, 2008 1:35 PM
Many years ago the late Delegate Tony Fulton saw a young man throw his fast-food trash on a vacant lot in the Sandtown-Winchester district of the city. When Del Fulton asked the young man who he expected to pick up after him the answer he received was, "The city". Sadly, I feel that this is the norm and not the exception.
Posted by: Richard Crystal, Baltimore | May 13, 2008 1:57 PM
Halle Van der Gaag, director of the Jones Falls Watershed Association, wrote this response to Patrick Boden:
Patrick- thanks so much for taking the time to write and thank you for your efforts on your own street, block and community- there are many of you across the City who work so hard to make a difference by taking the kind of actions you describe, but it is an uphill battle. Needless to say, we are facing a cultural reality where this kind of behavior-along with a multitude of other negative and destructive behaviors- is acceptable and often encouraged. We know that an ad campaign is not going to solve all of that, but we do hope it will reach some individuals and will be combined with other on the ground strategies, education, improved efficiencies in sanitation services etc. and hopefully combined, it will all make a difference. I can tell you the City's ad campaign concept is pretty hard hitting and grabs you- and has been targeted at specific demographics. I am sharing your comments with my colleagues and the point person at the City who is working on the creative side of the campaign and getting the ad campaign funded as well as improving the sanitation services at the Mayor's request. Her name is Celeste Amato. On behalf of all of us- thanks again for all you do and sorry we will be loosing you to another City!
Posted by: Valle Van der Gaag | May 13, 2008 2:48 PM
Having a deposit on bottles is a great idea. We have a 10 cent deposit on our cans and bolltles here in Michigan. It is really no big deal. You pay the extra deposit when you purchace your beverage and get the money back when you return your empties.
It is rare to see bottles or cans as litter. Homeless and other people looking to make a few extra $$ will always pick them up. Many organizations also collect them as a way to earn some extra $$ - school track teams will have can drives etc...
Posted by: bdc | May 13, 2008 5:04 PM
This trash thing is HUGE. After living in the city for a short time one begins to realize that people just throw out trash when they are done with it. I've seen people use the street as the garabage container - just throwing right out the front door. The reason is no more sophisticated than I am done with it and someone else will eventually clean it or it will go away. There is no understanding of watershed or even care about community or self respect.
As you mentioned it is really bizarre when you see people stuff storm drains full with trash, as if it is a better alternative.
It just goes to show there is a very long way to go.
Posted by: Dunn | May 13, 2008 6:51 PM
How about a deposit on cigarette butts as well? They outnumber any other litter out there.
Posted by: Ron | May 14, 2008 10:51 AM
To Tom Pelton:
It is very good to see a trash collector at the Inner Harbor and learn that it is being used.
My husband and I are residents of central Baltimore County right over the city line. We walk several times a week and pick up trash as we walk through Stoneleigh, Anneslie, Idlewylde, and Wiltondale. We have done ths for over twenty years. What constantly amazes us is that most of what we collect is clear water bottles with the Aquafina or another brand label. Few beer cans and liquor bottles are present. How is it that an area that is provided with good drinking water has been made captive to the bottled water industry? How is it that people have enough concern for their own health to consume water and yet throw their water bottles out as litter?
There is a complete disconnect with this behavior. The beverage companies do no public service announcements in a sustained way to encourage the careless and stupid among us to stop littering for both environmental and aesthetic reasons. If the beverage industry has been so successful at convincing people who do not really need bottled water to drink bottles water, perhaps they could mount the same kind of campaign to work to eliminate litter throughout the U.S.
The bottled drink industry has successfully defeated any attempts for a bottle deposit law in MD. I have a property in CT and it does seem to make a difference there, but it is not the perfect solution because some people litter so that the homeless can get the bottle/can return money.
Perhaps environmental reporters could mount an effort to have all beverage containers as well as styrofoam cups and sandwich holders marked with anti-littering slogans that are as effective as the advertising campaigns that promote the product.
People sure can make a huge difference on the local level, but perhaps a sustained campaign at the national level by the same corporations that cause the litter in the first place would be the effective and sophisticated approach the entire US and world need to improve this problem.
Sincerely,
Rosemary Creighton Mukhopadhyay
Posted by: Rosemary Creighton Mukhopadhyay | May 15, 2008 12:33 PM
I am a citizen of Baltimore City with a passion for watershed concerns. In talking with ordinary folks and in reading polls conducted by local watershed orgs, it is evident that the public is significantly lacking a basic understanding of how their actions impact their watershed. Most don't know what a watershed is, which one they are a part of, or how to get involved. They don't realize that we all live in a watershed. They don't know that stormwater is not treated before entering the waterways. Their knowledge is not reflective of their intelligence either. Somewhere along the way these fundamental issues have not been explained to them.
Thus, education is truly needed, and a multi-faceted approach is required. We also need to get people out on the river/bay/lake, etc., so they will relate to it. One challenge (of many) that I see is connecting Pennsylvanians to Chesapeake Bay concerns.
Not everyone reads the paper or cares about the environment. I feel the key to changing people's behavior (littering, etc.), is to connect the person in an emotional way. You have to make the issue personal and local, and connect the action with something the person cares about. There are many ways to do this, which for brevity's sake, I won't go into here.
I am currently building a website/blog that emphasizes watershed concerns affecting the Chesapeake Bay, that explores such ideas, and that I see as another way to get the public involved. My aim is to allow the public to go to ONE website, plug in their address, find their watershed, and from there be connected to everything pertaining to it. In addition they can gain knowledge of elementals that impact their watershed and their own lives. The blog is called Common Waters. It is not fully live yet but I will keep you posted on launch date.
Posted by: Valerie Butler | May 15, 2008 5:41 PM
I brushed off the original article when I first read it. However, walking along the waterfront from Canton to Fells point showed an amazingly low amount of trash after the recent storm. I know this area doesn't have the contraption that downtown does, but there are new "catchers" for trash, and they appear to be working. I'm all for it. This and the other things mentioned will eventually have long-term positive benefits for the harbor.
A bottle deposit wouldn't work. Who buys glass bottles anymore? The majority of the trash appears to be plastic bottles and various wrappers. Fines and information towards children will be the only way to curb the habit.
Growing up in East Baltimore, it was perfectly acceptable for people to dump all kinds of things in the gutter and storm drains, where other areas have people who actually sweep up around their homes...
Posted by: Herbert | May 16, 2008 10:37 AM
Someone should contact the decision makers on this, as the
Bandalong Floating Litter Trap would be a cost effective solution to this concept.
The Bandalong Litter Trap has been used successfully in Australia and the Pacific Rim for over 12 years as a cost effective, and economical means of collecting and retaining floating litter. It is currently made in the US by Stormwater Systems, Inc (base in GA).
It has been recommended by Anacostia Watershed for 14 locations, but no one seems to get it!
This passive system requires no fuel or operators, and works 24/7/365 days/year - and uses the current to guide litter to it.
It is a fraction of the cost of the featured unit, with a small one (5' wide X 20' long) costing
$36,000 and the large unit (10' X 29' long) costing $45,000.
Someone needs to let the decision makers know that this product is proven in other parts of the world.....Why trials, when the Bandalong works.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 21, 2008 8:00 PM
There are Two different problems with the water and the trash, One is the actal trash, second is the black color. The filthy color is not from empty bottles and trash from the strret. I believe it's from industry illegally dumping in the water. I just which they could catch these criminals and procecute them. Not sure how to do that.
Tom Pelton's response: I don't think you're right about that, Michael. There are almost no industries left around the Inner Harbor. They're all gone. It's all stormdrains now, running down from the commercial and residential areas of Baltimore. There is still plenty of sewage plant effluent that is causing major problems -- but that's not at the Inner Harbor. And there are still major industries (chemical plants, cement plants, etc) along the Patapsco River -- but again that's not the Inner Harbor.
Posted by: Michael | June 6, 2008 6:02 PM
The National Aquarium in Baltimore recently wrote an entry on the new Harbor Trash Wheel. It seems to be doing its job quite well - it can collect up to seven tons of trash after just one storm!
http://nationalaquarium.wordpress.com/2008/08/06/harbor-trash-wheel-makes-a-difference/
Posted by: National Aquarium | August 13, 2008 4:29 PM