Project Litter Gitter in Central Alabama
For over a decade, a group of organizations has 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. In summer 2020, 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 2020, we installed two litter gitters funded by the Jefferson County Department of Health in Trussville and Brighton, in September 2021, a litter gitter sponsored by ABC Coke, a division of Drummond Company, was installed in Five Mile Creek in Tarrant, and in July 2022, Wells Fargo sponsorsed a litter gitter in a Valley Creek tributary in Birmingham 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 sponsoring a litter gitter, 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:
Litter Gitters in the Water
- Valley Creek (7th St N., Birmingham)
- Valley Creek tributary (Birmingham – funded by Wells Fargo)
- Village Creek tributary (Birmingham – Airport)
- Village Creek (East Lake Park, Birmingham – funded by Birmingham Coca-Cola Bottling Company)
- Five Mile Creek (Chief Billy C Hewitt Park, Tarrant – funded by ABC Coke, a division of Drummond 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!
Become a Litter Gitter Getter!
Community support is critical if we want to continue our fight against litter. We need more Litter Gitter Getters, and more litter collection devices, to combat litter effectively.
In 2021, ALDOT spent $7.4 million to clean up trash on roadways, and Alabama was ranked as the 16th dirtiest state in the 2014 American State Litter Scorecard. Getters will help make Alabama a cleaner state.
Getters will be 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 our current Litter Gitter Getters!
Bham Now – Birmingham’s modern media
Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Brighton Memorial Garden Cemetery
Cahaba Brewing Company
Cahaba Riverkeeper
City of Bessemer
City of Birmingham
City of Birmingham Stormwater
City of Brighton
City of Homewood
City of Mountain Brook
City of Vestavia Hills
Coosa Riverkeeper
Creative Concepts
Deep South Outfitters
Drummond Company, Inc.
Eagle Solar & Light
Freshwater Land Trust
Friends of Shades Creek
Friends of Turkey Creek Nature Preserve
Green is Gold Lawn Service
Jefferson County Commission
Jefferson County Department of Health
Let Rivers Flow
Liz Lane Art
Maestro Maintenance
Mobile Baykeeper
MortgageRight
Orchestra Partners
Rabolli Environmental, Inc.
River Network
Robertson Piano
Tennessee Riverkeeper
Terracon
UAB’s Department of Sustainability
Village Creek Society
Wolf Creek Creations
Derek Conrad Brown
Todd Brown
Dr. and Mrs. Johnny Byrnes
Anne Cowin
Chip Cowin
Josh Crute
Rees Denham
Tiffany Eichelberger
Katie Fagan
Paul Freeman
Jakyrus Gantt
Daniel Gossett
Kathy and Scott Green
Jerry Griffies
William Harris
Tay Hawkins
Hannah Hurley
JaQuan Jones
Gottfried Kibelka
Jim Kimble
Liz Lane
Mitch Lowe
Cindy and Cliff Martin
Corrine McCaw
Joe Bear Meadow
Lindsay Mims
Whitney Mullins
José Julián Pérez Cordero
Don Petry
The Rev. Jayne Collins Pool, Rector
Michael Pope
Dr. Julie Price, UAB
Jessica and Bradley Sparks
The Scribner Family
Shaheed and DJ Supreme
Buddy Vines
Ashley Westfield
To learn more or add your name as a Litter Gitter Getter, contact Rebekah Correia at rebekah.correia@freshwaterlandtrust.org.