TRASH TRAPS
One of the results of decades of disinvestment in the neighborhoods of Atlanta’s Proctor Creek Watershed have been waterways disproportionately burdened by litter and trash pollution. In 2019, a community-driven litter and plastics reduction project kicked off as a partnership between Atlanta’s Parks and Recreation Department and Department of Watershed Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), Groundwork Atlanta and Park Pride. Through their vision and with support from The CocaCola Company’s World Without Waste Campaign and NRPA, these neighborhoods have adopted innovative trash-catchment systems (trash traps) to help create cleaner and more vibrant waterways, parks and communities. Over the past year, the community has combined two trash trap
technologies with green jobs training and litter education programs. The trash traps, installed within Atlanta’s parks, are improving water quality and stream habitat by removing the waste that heavily impacts these urban waterways. Since trash traps sit within Atlanta’s parks, community members can easily see the systems, discuss the topic of waste in waterways and participate in educational outreach programs on the importance of litter reduction. The maintenance of these systems created local green jobs — employees gather data on the material collected and then properly recycle, reuse or dispose of these materials.
A History of Proctor Creek Proctor Creek, a nine-mile tributary of the Chattahoochee River located on Atlanta’s west side, runs through residential, industrial, commercial and parklands. This waterway and its tributaries connect more than 35
PHOTO COURTESY OF NRPA
Many groups came together to make green innovative solutions a reality for Atlanta's Proctor Creek Watershed.
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Atlanta neighborhoods, many with local and national historical significance. It sits within a watershed encompassing approximately 16 square miles that is home to approximately 60,000 people. Proctor Creek has been plagued by pollution, especially escaped trash and illegal dumping. When combined with a history of community neglect and increasingly flashy flow characteristics (the rapid increase in flow shortly after precipitation and equally rapid return to base conditions shortly after), the litter creates an unsafe environment for the surrounding neighborhoods. Nearby areas have experienced environmental and health issues from numerous brownfields (polluted land that was previously developed and is not currently in use) and potential Superfund sites (polluted locations requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material, as designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation
