‘Drive your trash home’: Houston announces anti-littering campaign targeting PPE and other trash

HOUSTON – Houston launches an anti-littering campaign targeting personal protective equipment and other trash being left around the city.

The campaign will focus on properly discarding masks, gloves, sanitizer wipes and other trash during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The use of PPE has helped Houston lower its positivity rate to 6.1% and protect each other from the virus, but the illegal disposal of the items is causing concern, Mayor Sylvester Turner said during a press conference Wednesday.

“Houston we do have a problem: a PPE liter problem,” he said. “Every day thousands, if not millions, of disposable masks, gloves and sanitizer bottles are used and improperly discarded and disposed of.”

The new campaign will be promoted through the city to serve as a reminder to residents, using the taglines: “Don’t let Houston go to waste" and “Litter is trashy.”

Officials asked residents to be mindful of illegal dumping trash, including heavy trash after moving or cleaning out closets and garages and takeout from restaurants that are being thrown out of cars or left at parks, transit centers and other public spaces.

Over half of the litter accumulated on the streets are items discarded out of vehicles, said Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Martha Castex-Tatum, who is leading this initiative. The trash is being washed into waterways and water drains.

“Drive your trash home,” said Castex-Tatum, who is leading this initiative.

As a green city, Houston must do what it can to protect nearly 40,000 acres of parkland, 380 developed parks and 167 green spaces, Turner said. The goal of the citywide initiative is to combat, reduce and extinguish the behaviors that led to litter on the streets, parks and within the neighborhoods.

“We have to sound the alarm on this issue and encourage Houstonians to join us in taking action,” said Castex-Tatum.

The anti-littering campaign will be supported by city department and public partners including the Solid Waste Department, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Keep Houston Beautiful, Public Works Department, Department of Neighborhoods, Houston Airport Systems, Houston Police Department, Houston First, Houston Apartment Association, the Greater Houston Partnership, the various city TIRZs and management districts, METRO, the Super Neighborhood Alliance and Retailers Association of Texas and Greater Houston.

“We have a beautiful city. But we want to keep it, as I heard in today in city council, green and clean,” Turner said. “But in order to keep it that way, it is going to take all of us.”

Here is the full press conference announcing Houston’s new anti-littering campaign: