Mr. Trash Wheel Collects 1,000,000th Pound of Trash

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- One million pounds!

That's quite an achievement for Mr. Trash Wheel, the solar and water-powered trash collector that sits at the mouth of the Jones Falls near Pier Six in the Inner Harbor and intercepts trash that has washed off of Baltimore City streets before it reaches the Harbor and Chesapeake Bay.

The Waterfront Partnership's Healthy Harbor Initiative announced the milestone Thursday morning.

"One million pounds, or 500 tons, is equal to the weight of 55 Tyrannosaurus Rexes or about two Statues of Liberty," says Adam Lindquist, director of the Healthy Harbor Initiative. "This includes more than 8.5 million cigarette butts that, if lined up end to end, would stretch from Baltimore to Ocean City, MD."

Still, Lindquist says, "this is an occasion we would rather not celebrate... People need to realize that this is their trash and that it was heading straight for the Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay. It's time we got serious about changing the behaviors that keep our neighborhoods and our Harbor from being as clean and healthy as they should be."

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