Reasons To Be Cheerful · 10 hours ago

Meet Mr. Trash Wheel and His Trash-Catching Friends

When volunteers sort through storm drain trash in a Florida coastal town, they find the same brands lining their own pantries - cigarette butts, bottle caps, fake nails painted lavender, all destined for the ocean. Across the globe, trash traps ranging from simple mesh bags to googly-eyed "Mr. Trash Wheel" are intercepting millions of pounds of waste before it reaches waterways, but their real power lies in what the data reveals: In Maryland, meticulous tracking led to foam and plastic bag bans that reduced those items by 90 and 72 percent respectively. "Trash traps are great for cleanup, but they should really be viewed as more," explains one researcher - they hold up an uncomfortable mirror, turning anonymous litter into evidence of collective habits and catalyzing the upstream policies that could one day make the traps obsolete. The goal, says Mr. Trash Wheel's manager with a rueful smile, is "to retire him."