Project Litter Gitter

Project Litter Gitter in Central Alabama

For over a decade, a group of organizations worked together on a plan to install in-stream litter collection devices in Greater Birmingham’s urban streams.

In 2018, Osprey Initiative, the creator of the “litter gitter” device, emerged as a new company, and in December 2019, the first Birmingham litter gitter was installed in Valley Creek, thanks to River Network, Coca-Cola Foundation, the City of Birmingham, and other partners.

In April 2020, the EPA awarded Freshwater Land Trust a $500,000 grant to fund six litter gitters for three years. That summer, six new litter gitters were installed, including one device funded by the City of Homewood. In October 2020, River Network and Coca-Cola Foundation funded another litter gitter in East Lake Park. In December, we installed two more litter gitters, one in Trussville and one in Brighton, funded by the Jefferson County Department of Health.  ABC Coke, a division of Drummond Company, sponsored the installation and maintenance of a litter gitter in Five Mile Creek in Tarrant in September 2021, and the following summer (July 2022), Wells Fargo sponsored a litter gitter for a Valley Creek tributary in downtown Birmingham.

Since then, support for Project Litter Gitter has evolved, leading to more litter-trapping devices and community-wide cleanup efforts throughout  changed and litter gitters have  for a total of twelve litter gitters in the Cahaba River and Black Warrior River watersheds.

As of August 2024, over 26,000 of litter has been removed from Central Alabama waterways as a direct result of Project Litter Gitter.

To learn more about Project Litter Gitter, or how to support related anti-littering efforts, contact Rebekah Correia at rebekah.correia@freshwaterlandtrust.org.

• Read more about Birmingham’s first litter gitter.
• Check out our case study in the Urban Waters Learning Network‘s story about Managing Urban Litter.
• View our 2023 Litter Gitter booklet.
• Watch our Trash Free Waters in Central Alabama film series:
  • Part 1 – The Problem: Litter in our Water
  • Part 2 – Addressing the Problem: Project Litter Gitter
  • Part 3 – Preventing the Problem: Litter Quitters
  • Part 4 – Solving the Problem: Alabama The Beautiful

Litter Gitters in our Waterways

Valley Creek (7th St N., Birmingham)
Village Creek tributary (Birmingham – Airport)
Village Creek (East Lake Park, Birmingham – funded by Birmingham Coca-Cola Bottling Company)
Griffin Brook (Homewood, funded by the City of Homewood)
Shades Creek (Brookwood Mall, funded by the City of Homewood)
Buck Creek (Buck Creek Park, Alabaster – funded by the City of Alabaster)
Pinchgut Creek (Trussville – funded by the Jefferson County Department of Health)
Beaver Creek (Pinson – funded by the Jefferson County Commission)

Thank you to our Key Project Litter Gitter Partners!

Litter Gitter Getters

Community support is critical if we want to continue the fight against litter. More litter collection devices and targeted initiatives to reduce litter are how we combat litter effectively. Litter Gitter Getters are individuals committed to spreading will help make Alabama a cleaner state.

In 2021, ALDOT spent $7.4 million to clean up trash on roadways, and Alabama was ranked as the 16^th dirtiest state in the 2014 American State Litter Scorecard.

Getters are listed as project supporters on this page, as well as on presentations and proposals to potential funders. Getters are also encouraged to help recruit additional supporters.

Thank you to these Litter Gitter Getters!