Pittsburgh Garbage Olympics Grows, Seeking More Participants | News | Pittsburgh

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Photo: Courtesy Garbage Olympics

Transporting the East Liberty team to the recent Olympics garbage

The 2020 Olympics may be over, but Pittsburgh is hosting its own competitive Olympics, simply replacing sports with garbage collection in the city.

“Thanks to the incredible amount of garbage collected with the garbage Olympics in just 2 hours a year, we were able to make the case to the local government that this is a problem that requires more resources, more staff. , more of everything. for the quality of life of the residents of Pittsburgh, ”says Christopher B. Mitchell, who works for the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works.

More than 20 neighborhoods around Pittsburgh are currently registered for the Olympics garbage, and others are welcome. If a neighborhood is not currently listed, the volunteer who registers will be the team captain and point of contact.

The Garbage Olympics start at 9 a.m. on September 18 and will end at 11 a.m., giving teams two hours to pick up as much garbage as possible in their respective neighborhoods. Teams can be as small as a volunteer or hundreds of volunteers representing their neighborhood – the Garbage Olympics have said there is no size limit for teams.

“If you’ve ever wanted to show up in one of the neighborhoods next door, this is your best chance to prove it to them,” Mitchell says.

When the garbage collection period is over, the teams will meet at Threadbare Cider House on the North Side for a closing ceremony where the neighborhood team that collected the most garbage will be announced. The winning neighborhood receives a recycled trophy from a thrift store featuring the garbage icon: Oscar the Grouch.

Click to enlarge A toy unicorn in a pile of tires found in 2020 - PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES WASTE

Photo: Courtesy Garbage Olympics

A toy unicorn in a pile of tires found in 2020

Other awards will be announced at this year’s closing ceremony, including ‘Dirtiest Volunteer’, ‘Most Team Spirit’, ‘Most Volunteers’ and ‘Strangest Element’ find “. The winning team and special category winners will receive an enamel pin personalized with the Garbage Olympic torch logo.

The Garbage Olympics started in 2017 by Pittsburgh residents Renee Robinson, Alicia Carberry and Lena Andrews as a fun and competitive way for city neighborhoods to keep their neighborhoods clean, according to their website.

The annual event received the Neighborhood Image Award at the Neighborhood Allies Healthy Quarter in 2019.

“Each act of cleaning up waste is not just one action. He accomplished dozens of things, every time, ”says Mitchell. “It makes your community proud. It makes your community safer. It makes your community stronger. This makes the land and water around you less toxic. It discourages other waste by keeping it clean in the first place.

The event has grown each year starting with five East End neighborhoods competing in their first Olympics in 2017 to 34 neighborhoods in their 2020 event. In the final Garbage Olympics in 2020, the teams accumulated nearly 1,000 pounds of trash in one day.

Garbage Olympics: Sat Sep 18 9 am-11am Subscribe to pghgo.org

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