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Ask Planet Detroit: Why is there

so much trash in Detroit’s parks
(and what can we do about it?)
BY JENA BROOKER, BRIDGEDETROIT ● OPINION
● JULY 28, 2020

|||

Dear Planet Detroit,

Why are our parks so trashed with

garbage all the time? Is there anything
that can turn this around and keep our
parks clean?

Sincerely,

In search of clean and green

Dear Clean and Green,

Detroit has so many wonderful parks (309 to be

exact!). We asked the city what they’re doing to
keep the parks clean, and we found out that two
of the main challenges to keeping them clean are
the heavy use of the parks (yay!) and littering
(boo!).

Rosemary Edwards, superintendent of the

General Services Department for the city of
Detroit says there’s a myriad of problems with
the trash in the parks, including illegal dumping,
stolen trash cans, littering, and increased use of
the parks this season due to COVID-19 compared
to previous years.

“I could turn all of my park mowing crews into

cleaning crews and still not have enough crews to
clean the parks and keep up with the volume of
trash we have this season,” she says, adding that
although the city has increased the number and
frequency trash pickups this year, the trash is still
“constant.”

Edwards says that not all of the trash in the parks

is from park use—sometimes people bring trash
there.

“People know it will get picked up,” she says. All

manner of household items like furniture, toilets,
drywall, floorboards, household trash bags, leaf
debris in paper bags, are dumped in Detroit
parks.

Alfred Brush Ford Park. Photo courtesy Ted Tansley

Another issue is trash bin tampering. Sometimes

people vandalize the bins, steal them, or turn
them over to look for a bottle and can
returnables.

Jeremy Thomas, the communications and

marketing manager for the Detroit Parks and
Recreation Department, told Planet Detroit that
around 200 sta" maintain the parks regularly.

Nonetheless, park usage and those who leave

trash and debris make it challenging to keep
parks clean. “We rely on park-goers to help us
keep parks clean,” Thomas says.

Two park-goers are doing just that.

Ted Tansley, who lives in Je"erson-Chalmers,

and Ambreia Stephens, who lives in Palmer Park,
were both motivated recently during the COVID-
19 pandemic to initiate major community
cleanups for their local parks.

“It’s personally really di#cult and challenging for

me to enjoy these parks in all their beauty when
it’s being ruined by all the trash,” Tansley says.

Tansley hosts a weekly meetup group on the app

Nextdoor called the Je"erson Chalmers Park
Advocates & Cleanup Crew. The group has more
than 50 members that meet every Sunday to
clean one of the five parks in their rotation:
Mariner Park, A.B. Ford Park, Maheras Gentry
Park, Hansen Playground, and Lakewood East
Park. In addition to cleanups, they also email and
call their District 4 representatives to advocate
for more trash cans, increased city-led cleaning,
and hours restricting park-goers to daytime use.

One problem with the trash left in the parks,

Tansley says, is that it gets mowed over when the
grass is mowed, leaving tiny pieces of plastic.
“I’ve personally seen trash just get shredded,” he
says. “People aren’t picking up the trash
beforehand.”

This can present more problems beyond just

making it harder to clean up. John Scott, a
researcher at the Illinois Sustainable Technology
Center says, “If you’re mowing up the stu",
you’re definitely contributing to or speeding up
the process of going from a macroplastic to a
microplastic.”

Microplastics present a host of problems for local

ecosystems and humans by entering into
groundwater and surface water. From there, it’s
possible for people and wildlife to ingest them,
along with any other contaminants they absorb
from the environment. “The smaller they are, the
more they have a potential to transfer across
biological membranes, getting into your cells,
getting into your organs, your bloodstream,”
Scott says.

John Myers has lived in Detroit for almost three

decades, and coming to its parks even longer—his
dad would take him fishing as a kid in the 1960s.
As an adult, he’s been cleaning up the parks for
decades individually, with groups, and through
work at community development corporations.
“It’s always been a challenge,” he says. “I can’t
remember when it wasn’t.”

One of those challenges is budgetary. In 2018-

2019, the city’s budget for parks was 8 percent of
the total, up from 6 percent in 2017-2018, before
going back down to 6 percent for 2019-2020.
This past May, Mayor Duggan, and the City
Council approved the 2021 budget with major
cuts to the public spaces department, which
parks fall under.

Alfred Brush Ford Park. Photo courtesy Ted Tansley

“In this city, the first budget cuts come to parks

and recreation, and the last one to get back in the
budget is parks and recreation,” Myers says.

According to the Trust for Public Land’s

ParkScore Index—which ranks cities based on
access, investment, acreage, amenities of its
public parks and spaces—Detroit ranks 82 out of
97 cities. Just 7 percent of Detroit’s land is used
for parks. In comparison, Minneapolis, the city
that ranked highest on the score, uses two times
as much (15 percent) of its land for parks.

In the Palmer Park area, Ambreia Stephens, a

community organizer, and an avid park-goer, is
planning a combined field day and park cleanup
event on August 2nd for Palmer Park. Stephens
has always seen trash at the parks but this year
says it was especially bad and felt motivated to do
something about it.

The event will be complete with DJs, food, a

video game truck, potato sack racing, food, and
even tattoo-voucher prize giveaways for the
teams that collect the most trash. She’s hosting
this event to hopefully have a ripple e"ect and,
Stephens says, “to get people outside and to be
excited about taking care of their spaces. They’re
our spaces to take care of, and there’s a
responsibility in that. We need to do better.”

Riverfront-Lakewood East Park. Photo courtesy Ted

Tansley.

Stephens has amassed several collaborators and

partnerships for the event including Green Living
Science, the Belle Isle Conservancy, and the
Detroit Regional LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

With COVID-19 still spreading and the outdoors

being one of the only places for people to be right
now, Stephens says it’s especially important that
people start taking care of the parks. “It’s our job
as people of the community to maintain our
community,” she says.

In addition to organizing cleanups like Tansley

and Stephens, Detroit residents can get involved
in other ways. The city has an Adopt-a-Park
program for which adopters are expected to keep
the park free of debris, routinely mow, and trim
or remove weeds. For the problem of illegal
dumping, Edwards recommends taking pictures
of the debris and submitting them on the
Improve Detroit app so the trash can be picked
up.

Author

JENA BROOKER,
BRIDGEDETROIT

Jena Brooker is the environmental reporter for

BridgeDetroit. Previously, she was the first Midwest
fellow at Grist, and the first intern at Planet Detroit. Her
writing highlights issues a"ecting vulnerable
communities and includes diverse voices. She writes in a
variety of styles but particularly loves creating in-depth
news stories that make the reader feel personally and
emotionally connected to the topic. She also writes
about cool nature stu". Her professional background is
varied- from racial justice work to teaching to farming.
She has a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies
from the University of Michigan. More by Jena Brooker

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