local government trash reduction and education Toolkit
This Local Government Trash Reduction and Education Toolkit is a consolidation of resources developed to assist local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, and other entities who are seeking to engage and educate their communities on the topics of watersheds, litter, aquatic debris, and cleanup initiatives.
Users will find resources, such as videos, reports, infographics, and websites to existing campaigns that can aid in the promotion or creation of litter abatement education and outreach initiatives in their own communities. The toolkit also includes information on available grants and funding opportunities for cleanup events, and local enforcement resources to curb illegal dumping.
The toolkit is broken down into several categories based on the type of resources a community or organization may be seeking.
*Please be aware that the drop-down menus below will automatically collapse after a selection is made. To avoid collapsing, right click on a link within the drop-down and select “Open in a new tab (or window).”
Resources and Websites
The following is a collection of resources from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Trash Free Waters (TFW) program.
• Impacts of Mismanaged Trash: This report contains information from the EPA on the impacts of mismanaged trash, primarily plastics. The report gives information on habitat impacts, chemical impacts, biological impacts, human impacts, and the problems associated with the ingestion of plastic particles.
• TFW Program Flyer: This flyer offers a quick look at the Trash Free Waters Program and how you can get involved.
• Trash Free Waters “The Rapids” Newsletter: If you would like to stay up to date on all things happening with the EPA’s Trash Free Waters program, check out the archive of the monthly newsletter ”The Rapids” or sign up to join the newsletter distribution list.
• International Trash Free Waters Implementation Guide: The Trash Free Waters International Implementation Guide, developed by the EPA, is an excellent resource for implementation of TFW across the globe. The guide includes information on how to start your TFW team and how to implement the project in your own community.
Canva: Canva is a graphic design tool that allows you to create posters, flyers, social media graphics, presentations, and more. This is a great tool, with both free and paid options, that can be used to sharpen visual communications within your department or local government.
Residential Recycling Programs in Texas: Here is a list of the top 50 most populated cities in the state of Texas along with links to their respective recycling programs. This information is provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Contacts for Texas Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Programs: Here is a list of contacts for HHW Programs. Listed by county, this PDF also shows the area served, event details, site address, contact name, email, phone, and webpage for each contact. This information is provided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
Organizations
We love promoting other organizations that are doing great work and these organizations from across the state represent some of the best of Texas’ environmental stewardship programs that provide a focus on litter and watersheds.
Coastal Communities: Coastal Communities is a program initiated by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) that is used to provide resources and support for small communities in coastal watersheds in the upper Texas Gulf Coast Region. The main intent behind the program is to help those small coastal communities prevent water pollution in their area by providing resources, locating funding opportunities, and promoting education and outreach about coastal pollution.
Don’t mess with Texas: The Don’t mess with Texas campaign was created in 1985, sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation. The campaign is designed to teach Texans the cost of littering via media, billboards, and consumer outreach. With a multitude of studies dating back to the beginning of the campaign, Don’t mess with Texas has compiled several different resources for litter prevention, including litter facts, contests, scholarships, games, activity books, stickers, backgrounds, and more.
Partners in Litter Prevention: The Partners in Litter Prevention are a nonprofit focused on keeping aquatic trash out of the Galveston Bay Watershed. Via their website, they work toward this goal by bringing together organizations, agencies, and other stakeholders in the Houston-Galveston region to conduct research, prevent land and water-based debris, and remove aquatic litter and marine debris. Their website has more tools for organizations and the public to fight aquatic trash in their area.
Take Care of Texas: The Take Care of Texas website addresses several environmental topics such as water conservation, water quality, trash and recycling, and air quality. Messaging targeted for different audience groups ranging from Kids, Teens, and Teachers is available for each topic. The following is a list of resources which address litter, waste, and water quality:
• Publications (Free)
• Waste Reduction Successes And Resources page
• Put Waste in Its Place infographic (PDF)
The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment: The Meadows Center is a relatively new center on the campus of Texas State University-San Marcos that focuses on water research and water’s relationship with the environment. While primarily known as a center for research, the Meadows Center also has different activities, such as field trips, glass-bottom boat tours, and spring lake diving, that allow for the public to be immersed in water science. The Meadows Center’s website also features an Online Learning Hub that provides access to educational videos, DIY tutorials, teacher resources, curriculum chapters, and aquatic science projects.
Keep Texas Beautiful: Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) is a network of Texans that aims to keep our state clean. KTB equips local partners and affiliates with different tools and resources that allow them to build up their communities and keep them clean. One example of these resources is the Texas Litter Database, which allows users to keep track of cleanup events, enter litter data from their communities, find litter resources from other communities, and more. KTB also offers several grants that are listed in the Funding Opportunities section of this document.
Toolkits and Reports
Need help pulling together educational outreach materials, programs or looking for fresh inspiration? You’ve come to the right place! We’ve compiled a selection of toolkits ranging from how to hold a clean-up event, how to engage with recreational groups on cleanup activities, monthly social media posts targeting litter and floatables, and more.
Recreational Litter Cleanup Toolkit: Provides resources to assist local and regional governments, nonprofit organizations, and other entities interested in hosting recreational driven litter cleanup events such as plogging, plalking, pliking, and pladdling, or creating educational campaigns to encourage these activities. Access the toolkit here.
Model Recyling Program Toolkit: The EPA has created this toolkit to serve as an interactive collection of EPA and other materials that can help states, territories, local governments, tribes, schools, nonprofit organizations, companies, and public-private partnerships create effective programs for recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, reuse, repair and waste reduction. Materials in the toolkit can help communities increase participation in recycling programs and reduce contamination in the recycling stream. The toolkit contains Case Studies, Training Materials, Standardized Terms, Consumer Education Material Examples, and Grantee Evaluation Guide. Access the toolkit here.
Mayor’s Challenge Toolkit: The Mayor’s Challenge Toolkits are designed to help entities coordinate a cleanup challenge at a local or regional level. The toolkits help walk users through the planning, implementation, and reporting phases of cleanup events. Access the toolkits here.
PETF Reducing Aquatic Litter Toolkits: In 2019, the Stormwater Public Education Task Force (PETF) at the North Central Texas Council of Governments took on the project of addressing litter and floatables found in stormwater. In addition to other tasks, the group decided to develop social media toolkits to help convey the impact of different types of litter on the environment and actions that communities can take in response. While drafted in 2019-2020, these toolkits are still relevant and can be modified and used by communities around the state at any time. Access them at the Public Education Task Force program page under the green banner “Outreach Materials and Resources”.
Last Stop – The Ocean: This resource is both a campaign and toolkit created by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, an intergovernmental organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The campaign was started as an effort between all three founding countries to prevent and reduce litter in the interconnected waterways, rivers, and watersheds in North America. The campaign’s toolkit counterpart is a free toolkit that is downloadable via the Last Stop: The Ocean’s website. This toolkit offers different resources to help teach North Americans about marine litter, including posters, print ads, social media ads, and an educational website.
National Litter Study by Keep America Beautiful: Keep America Beautiful is a national nonprofit that focuses on improving the environment through local communities. As a nonprofit, they offer several programs, initiatives, and campaigns. This includes the Great American Cleanup, America Recycles Day, and more. On their website, they offer different kinds of resources, including PSA’s, educational resources, and community grants. The organization also conducts a National Litter Study that was most recently performed in 2020, which is widely considered to be the most comprehensive litter study in America.
Reducing Marine Litter Through Local Action: Reducing Marine Litter Through Local Action is a toolkit created by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation. The purpose of the toolkit is to help urban, suburban, and rural communities in North America coordinate their efforts to keep their trash from becoming marine litter. Mostly designed for inland or coastal communities, this toolkit offers an introduction to organizing around the initiative to reduce land-based marine litter, divided into four parts that span 75 pages.
Waste in Our Waters – A Community Toolkit for Aquatic Litter Removal: The Waste in Our Waters: A Community Toolkit for Aquatic Litter Removal is a toolkit created by the River Network that tackles aquatic litter removal within communities. With the support of the Coca Cola foundation, this toolkit offers a variety of litter related resources aimed towards eliminating aquatic litter. The toolkit focuses on assessing and capturing litter within your community, while also covering litter removal strategies and litter management project planning.
Litter, Trash, And Watershed Education
LITTER:
Texas Disposal Systems: How Does Littering Affect the Environment? This blog post by Texas Disposal Systems outlines in a very short and easy to digest manner what littering is, the most commonly littered items, how littering is bad for the environment, and litter solutions and prevention.
WATERSHEDS:
The resources in this section are designed to help draw the connection between local actions and our larger watersheds.
EnviroAtlas - Exploring Your Watershed: The Exploring Your Watershed module developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) incorporates an outdoor lesson, a hands-on lesson, and a web-based tool. It is K-6 focused and is available in both English and Spanish.
Water Education: The Water Education page, developed by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department , allows educators and environmental outreach staff to access tools like the Watershed Viewer to show students how we all live in a watershed. Students can find their watershed by entering their address into the Watershed Viewer tool. An assortment of water related activities, lesson plans, downloadable publications and loaner trunks are also available.
Texas Waters – Exploring Water and Watersheds: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Waters curriculum is geared towards adults as a way to inform and educate citizens about the most precious natural resource Texas possesses, its water. Participants can earn a Texas Waters Specialist designation upon completion.
What’s Your Watershed Address?: The Texas Aquatic Science curriculum is an internationally-recognized suite of free technology-enhanced learning materials entirely available on-line or in traditional format that takes middle through high school science students through the wonderful world of water, from headwaters to oceans, and molecules to ecosystems. The curriculum also includes an 800-page teachers guide and teaching materials, over 250 specially produced videos for on-line and classroom learning, interactive and on-line learning aids, multiple on-line partners hosting curriculum materials, and a network of over 65 certified outdoor learning centers located throughout Texas where teachers may take entire classes for outdoor learning linked to the curriculum through field experiences. The curriculum is fully correlated with Texas state education standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Chapter 3, What’s Your Watershed Address?, focuses on Watershed education.
Rainfall Travel Time in a Watershed: So just how fast does rain and water travel through a watershed? This short video by the Tarrant Regional Water District explains how long it takes for rain to travel through a watershed located in far north Texas. This video helps draw the connection between actions that happen upstream to what happens downstream in our watersheds.
Drinking Water/Watershed Protection Area Signs: Help raise awareness of watershed and drinking water protection areas by installing signage in key locations. Check out this example from the North Texas Municipal Water District.
VIDEOS:
If you’re in search of educational or PSA style videos to share with your local communities, we have you covered. Here you can find an assortment of videos on the topics of litter, trash, stormwater, and all things water related.
Adopt-A-Spot Video: This short info video, created by the West Central Texas Council of Governments, highlights the Trash Free Texas Adopt-A-Spot website and mapping tool. It is great as a promotional or outreach tool to advertise the work of this program. Access the video on their Facebook page here.
NCTCOG E&D YouTube channel (Environmental Topics): A YouTube channel run by the North Central Texas Council of Governments offers many brief outreach videos, including a stormwater playlist. This playlist has educational materials on a variety of stormwater related topics such as why only rain should go down the stormdrain, proper lawn care and stormwater’s link to drinking water.
Stormwater PETF Pollution Prevention Litter Video: This video explains why litter is a big problem for you and the environment, and what you can do to prevent litter in the first place. It is geared towards multiple age groups, teaching about the impact of litter on stormwater and drinking water resources and preventative actions they can take.
H-GAC YouTube channel (Environmental Topics): A YouTube channel run by the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments, this channel offers different media resources on topics such as clean cities, transportation, mobility, water resources, hurricane preparedness, and more. The channel can be found here.
The Meadows Center YouTube channel: The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment’s YouTube channel is created by them and offers resources on water, environmental protection, animals, DIY projects, and more. Find the channel here.
All the Cups, By Jack: A short film narrated by 6-year-old Jack about stormwater debris in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas. It offers insight on the troubles that their community faces with trash in their waters. Watch the short film here.
Trash in Lake Ray Hubbard: This video demonstrates the overwhelming amount of trash in Lake Ray Hubbard. With testimonies from the City of Rowlett and their employees, this video offers a unique perspective on the impact of trash in a community’s bodies of water.
Water Pollution: This informational video provides several sources of information on the impact of water pollution. Narrated through the perspective of Cookie the spotted seal, this video offers several different statistics and examples of the impact of water pollution.
Project Aware – The Ugly Journey of Our Trash: This video from Project Aware shows the journey that trash takes when it leaves our hands. Filled with statistics and visual demonstrations, this video explains the basics of trash and pollution.
Initiatives and Campaigns
Looking for inspiring campaigns or initiatives to promote or replicate within your local community? Look no further than this roundup of campaigns and initiatives that can easily be promoted with a local call to action.
Take 2 For Texas: The Take 2 for Texas is a citizen science style project that recruits participation from non-profits, scouting groups, schools, clubs, and families to help report trash in and around local waterways. Participants just “take two” minutes to pick-up and count all the plastic bottles they can see along a waterway. They then write down and report their counts after recycling or throwing the bottles away.
Plastic Free July: Plastic Free July is a plastic free challenge that is a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation. The challenge asks participants to reduce their household waste and recycling for the month of July, while also creating longstanding plastic free habits within each household. With several environmental awards won over the past few years, Plastic Free July has garnered support from over 300 million people across 177 countries and has become a global influence on plastic reduction.
EPA Pack a Waste-Free Lunch: The Pack a Waste-Free Lunch initiative developed by the EPA teaches students how to reduce, reuse, and recycle items in their school lunches. The website includes resources and materials to inspire and teach students how to have waste-free lunches at school.
National Cleanup Day: Residing in the middle of National Cleanup Month, National Cleanup Day falls each year on the third Saturday in September. National Cleanup Day is a nationwide event that encourages everyone to do their part in picking up trash within their communities. With multiple resources in the form of flyers, maps, and reports, the website for National Cleanup Day also offers National Cleanup Day registration for individuals, organizations, and municipalities.
International Coastal Cleanup: Started by the Ocean Conservancy, the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is a yearly coastal cleaning movement that encourages those who live near the sea to do their part in cleaning it up. Beginning in 1986, the ICC has come together to clean up the coasts of over 100 countries through the power of their volunteer network. The Ocean Conservancy website has more information on how to join the movement, as well as resources for cleaning and organizing.
Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program: The Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program works to recover monofilament line, line used on fishing reels, from bodies of water. This program is coordinated by the Texas Sea Grant College Program, and is a statewide, volunteer-led effort to educate the public about problems with monofilament line and encouraging recycling of monofilament line.
Nurdle Patrol: Nurdles are small plastic pellets used to create virtually all plastic products and are washing up on our coastal shorelines. The Nurdle Patrol is a citizen science project lead by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas that encourages volunteers to collect nurdles and submit their pictures/data of the nurdles to the Nurdle Patrol.
USAg Recycling: This is a free service specializing in recycling agriculture containers, including product containers for crop protection, specialty pest control, animal health, and micronutrient/fertilizers. The website also has more information on how to properly clean those containers before recycling them, and which containers can and cannot be recycled.
Funding opportunities
The following is a list of resources on available funding to help reduce litter and trash in waterways. Please always check to ensure that your project fits the parameters of the funding opportunity.
EPA Gulf of Mexico Grants: Periodically, the EPA Gulf of Mexico Division issues Requests for Applications (RFAs) for funding opportunities that may be of interest to those working on litter abatement and environmental education programs. Learn more about the Gulf of Mexico programs and any upcoming RFAs by visiting the program’s website.
Regional Solid Waste Grants Program: Every two years, the Texas State Legislature designates funds for the 24 Councils of Governments (COGs) in the state of Texas. Out of these funds, COGs allocate a portion of funding towards local and regional implementation grants. Eligible entities can apply for grants for an array of project types, including Local Enforcement (such as illegal dumping cameras, program establishment, etc. for the prevention of illegal dumping of municipal solid waste) and Litter and Illegal Dumping Cleanups (such as vehicles and trailers, volunteer gear and appreciation items, etc. for the support of ongoing or periodic cleanup of litter and illegal dumping). Learn more about the pass-through solid waste grants here or by contacting your local COG for region specific information and funding cycles.
Keep America Beautiful: Keep America Beautiful (KAB) has a Cigarette Litter Prevention Grant dedicated to eliminating cigarette litter and educating smokers on the proper disposal of cigarette butts. KAB awards these grants to its affiliates, local governments, business improvement districts, downtown associations, parks and recreation areas, and other organizations.
Keep Texas Beautiful: The Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) organization has a variety of pass-thru grant opportunities available to affiliates and community members across the state. There are also a variety of additional grant opportunities that are made available to qualified applicants through their friends and partners. Below is a selection of grants available through KTB that address litter prevention and abatement:
•ZenWTR Waterway Cleanup Grants
•Our Texas Our Future Grants
•Texas Recycles Day Grants
Environmental Protection Agency: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board administer federal grants from the Environmental Protection Agency for activities that prevent or reduce nonpoint source pollution. These grants are made available through a federal program authorized under the Clean Water Act Section 319(h) Grant Program. Litter removal from waterways is an eligible activity, however, please note that more “points” are awarded during the proposal scoring process to activities that impact parameters of impairment or concern, like bacteria, dissolved oxygen, etc. Trash removal projects that can show other improvements to water quality, would help their application score higher.
Litter Enforcement and illegal dumping resources
Have spots with chronic litter or illegal dumping issues? These resources and programs are designed to help you fight back and turn the tide against litter and illegal dumping!
Don’t mess with Texas Report a Litterer: Report a Litterer is an online resource provided by Don’t Mess with Texas, a campaign formed to help reduce litter in the state of Texas. This resource allows people to report a litterer via their license plate number and vehicle. Once processed, the campaign will find that person via their registration and send them a bag and a letter to remind them not to litter.
EPA Electronics Donation and Recycling: The by Environmental Protection Agency allows people to donate their old electronics for recycling, in order to ensure that they are disposed and recycled properly. Visit their by website for more information on how you can donate electronics in the safest and most convenient fashion possible.
Report Illegal Dumping DFW: ReportDFWdumping.com is a website designed for easy access to illegal dumping reporting and solid waste programs available in the North Central Texas region. The goal of this website is to increase awareness of the hazards of illegally dumping trash and to encourage all citizens in the region to participate in local recycling and solid waste programs. Visit http://reportdfwdumping.org to report illegal dumping sites or activities online or call the hotline at 1-888-335-DUMP.
Texas Litter Abatement Act: The Texas Litter Abatement Act is an act from chapter 365 of the Texas Health and Safety Code that provides punishments for illegal dumping. These punishments can be as severe as a felony and jail time if over 1,000 pounds or 200 square feet of illegally dumped waste. More details of the act can be found here via the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Cleanup events
The following is a small selection of regional or state-wide annual cleanup events. These events may provide free resources to participants upon request and offer a great opportunity to engage local residents who might not normally participate in litter cleanup activities.
Don’t mess with Texas Trash Off: Trash-Off is an event held by the Don’t Mess with Texas organization each year in April. The event focuses on trash cleanup at the local level and encourages Texas residents to make a difference by cleaning up their communities.
H-GAC Trash Bash: Trash Bash is an annual event held in March each year by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The event is the largest single day waterway clean-up event in Texas and is almost 30 years old. With nearly 5,000 volunteers every year, Trash Bash has continued to serve Galveston Bay and the state of Texas.
Keep Texas Beautiful Events: Keep Texas Beautiful, an organization devoted to cleaning and maintaining the state of Texas, has a thorough list of events across the state of Texas. Use their interactive calendar to find events near your community.
North Texas Community Cleanup Challenge: The North Texas Community Cleanup Challenge is structured as a friendly region-wide competition, as volunteers participate in litter cleanup events and other individual activities during the designated timeframe on behalf of their city. The cleanup challenge strives to reduce the negative impact escaped trash and litter causes our environment and tackles the problem from a region-wide perspective.
Case Studies
Coming soon!
The North Central Texas Council of Governments received funding from the United States Environmental Protection Agency to develop this toolkit, which was completed through a partnership with the Houston-Galveston Area Council and Texas State University.