The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore strives to create a cleaner and greener future. One of the ways they are accomplishing this is through their trusted friend Mr. Trash Wheel. The Inner Harbor Water Wheel, or “Mr. Trash Wheel,” utilizes old and new technologies to harness the power of water and sunlight to collect litter and debris flowing down the Jones Falls River. “The current of the river provides enough power to turn the wheel, which lifts the trash and debris from the water and deposits it into a dumpster barge. When there isn’t enough water current, a solar panel array provides additional power to keep the machine running. When the dumpster is full, it’s towed away by boat, and a new dumpster is put in place.” (Mr. Trash Wheel, 2018).

Mr. Trash Wheel is extremely popular and has a large following in the Baltimore area. With his personal Twitter account, Mr. Trash Wheel urges citizens to become a member of “The Order of the Wheel”, a secret society with the sole mission of freeing the world of trash. Mr. Trash Wheel allows the Waterfront Partnership to quantify the amount of trash flowing within the area, which makes it easier to show the extent of the pollution problem. Since the creation of Mr. Trash Wheel in 2014, he has picked up 638,262 plastic bottles, 9,391,600 cigarette butts, and 737,025 polystyrene containers. Mr. Trash Wheel has done wonders for the Baltimore community, and we can’t wait to see what else he will do.

Mr. Trash Wheel | Baltimore Waterfront. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2018, from http://baltimorewaterfront.com/healthy-harbor/water-wheel/