Introducing Less Litter Maryland!
“Less Litter Maryland will be a much needed step towards coordinating trash cleanups and linking data collection to improved public policy outcomes.”
Currently, many different organizations and individuals are involved in trash cleanup efforts. However they are often uncoordinated and typically fail to quantify, or properly quantify the results of the cleanup effort. Although all cleanup efforts are greatly appreciated, this represents a missed opportunity to organize the most efficient cleanups possible and to generate proper data collection that can be used for future research and policy making.
The Less Litter Maryland program seeks to coordinate and promote trash cleanups across the state by bringing together organizations, institutions, individuals, and government agencies to form a coalition. Members of the coalition would share methodologies and best practices in order to standardize reporting to ensure the best outcomes from those trash cleanups. Trash Free Maryland’s research committee will oversee reporting standardization so that it utilizes best practices for citizen scientists.
Program Goals:
Increase participation in and quality of trash cleanups in Maryland
Trash Free Maryland will share and support trash cleanups hosted by other groups and individuals across the state.
Standardize data collection using citizen science
Trash Free Maryland will work with a coalition to standardize data collection and house the data in a centralized database.
Use statewide data to inform policy solutions and drive research
Data from the trash cleanups can help inform policy decisions at the state, county, and local levels, and provide a catalyst for new research.
Trash Free Maryland’s part in the coalition’s efforts:
Develop a website to promote individual trash cleanups
Use its own online channels to promote trash cleanups
Provide tools and equipment for trash cleanups
Provide training and materials for quantifying the trash collected during cleanups (initially paper-based, but eventually an app for mobile devices with proper funding)
Maintain a database of coalition members, and hold periodic meetings to plan, monitor, evaluate, and share best practices
Maintain a database of the trash collected through cleanups that is useful for research
Promote research into trash data in Maryland in order to inform public policy decisions
Hold regular research committee meetings to monitor, evaluate, and improve trash collection reporting efforts
We are at the beginning stages of the program, but we anticipate that Less Litter Maryland will be a much needed step towards coordinating trash cleanups and linking data collection to improved public policy outcomes. We are confident that these efforts will have a positive impact on everyone statewide as well as within individual communities and we would welcome your partnership in this endeavor.
Are you or your organization interested in participating in Less Litter Maryland? Sign up below!