When Sue Hall thinks about the litter scattered along Fort Worth streets, a specific event comes to mind. She remembers watching a driver drop a McDonald’s bag out a car window — just a few feet before he pulled into his own driveway.
“You just threw that out in your front yard,” she said. “The litter’s got worse but, of course, there’s more people that have moved here.”
Hall was among the hundreds of volunteers who turned out March 23 for the annual Cowtown Great American Cleanup, held at parks and neighborhoods across Fort Worth. The event came shortly after the city’s most recent community survey revealed low resident satisfaction with litter control and cleanliness.
About 1,725 residents completed the survey last year, and data was shared with City Council members in March.
While residents reported high satisfaction with mowing of city parks, maintenance of business properties and graffiti removal, only 30% of respondents said they were very satisfied or satisfied with how well litter is kept under control in Fort Worth.
Another 22% were neutral, and 47% reported dissatisfaction with litter services — one of the highest dissatisfaction rates across all survey categories, which included public safety, transportation and parks.
Resident concern about litter has been steadily rising since 2019, according to previous community survey results. Survey respondents identified the cleanliness of major city streets and public areas and how well litter is kept under control as top priorities for city staff over the next two years.
Fort Worth officials have responded with the creation of the city’s environmental services department in 2023 and the rollout of street sweepers, cleanup crews and a new program focused on removing trash from highways. With the help of the Tarrant Regional Water District, the city has also budgeted funds to build a water wheel capable of removing thousands of pounds of trash from the Trinity River each day.
To Gian Vindel, who cleared tires and trash from Marion Sansom Park with his coworkers at construction firm Black & Veatch, it feels like Fort Worth is “still at zero.”
“We still need to improve the litter,” Vindel said. “It’s still constantly everywhere. I bike ride about four times a week on the Trinity Trails, and I have seen it increase in some ways. After rain events, there’s definitely a lot more litter.”
Neither Vindel nor his coworker Elizabeth Blackwelder blamed city services for the rising litter problem.
“It’s not what the city can do for you, it’s what you can do for the city,” Blackwelder said. “You can’t sit and wait.”
They agreed that more educational programming targeted toward young people would help students learn the basics of trash disposal, recycling and littering before they pick up harmful habits. While cleanups are helpful, education would address the long-term problem, Vindel said.
“If we don’t educate the local residents as well, we can pick up a whole park today, but then tomorrow it can be just as bad,” he said.
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
Camilo Diaz is a multimedia fellow at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at camilo.diaz@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.