When it rains, stormwater runoff flows into drains and pipes that feed into our creeks and lakes, carrying with it litter and other types of pollution that degrade water quality and harm aquatic life. Polluted stormwater runoff is the leading cause of pollution in our surface waters.
Envision Charlotte, Coca-Cola Consolidated, the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and Osprey Initiative have partnered to install litter collection devices called Litter Gitters in Charlotte’s waterways to capture and recycle as much litter as possible.
This pilot program will focus on collecting recyclable materials from the waterways, gathering data, and finding sustainable solutions for the future. Each week, Osprey Initiative will collect and analyze the waste captured in order to literally look upstream and find ways to address the problem and limit the amount of litter.
Three Litter Gitters have been deployed on Little Sugar Creek and Irwin Creek in Charlotte (see maps below!) and will be cleaned out weekly or more often as needed. After the Litter Gitters are cleaned out, the trash and debris is analyzed. First the materials are reviewed for how degraded they are, second by type, and third if there are any visible labels. That information is then used in an effort to find the source of the materials. If a source can be found then remedies are reviewed to see if trash can be better kept from the river ways (e.g. a convenience store’s logo on styrofoam cups may indicate that an upstream store may need a trash can).
