To address these issues, the Trash Free Texas team is working with Texas-based restaurants, third-party delivery services, and manufacturers to identify win-win strategies to reduce the use of single-use plastic, helping our partners save money, reduce litter, and clean up our communities. Want to be a part of the solution? Consider joining our Plastic Reduction Work Group! 

Beginning in late November 2021, the Plastic Reduction Work Group will meet online to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and resources available to restaurants, third-party delivery services, and manufacturers to reduce the frequency of single-use plastic use. Through these discussions, the project team will develop a Tool Kit of best practices to aid partners in implementing plastic reduction strategies, as well as Case Studies that highlight the great work already being done. Interested parties can choose to adopt those strategies, helping the project team collect data to better understand which methods are most effective for restaurants.

A general overview of the timeline for the Work Group is:

To join the Work Group email list or to learn more about the project, email [email protected].

This summer, Keep Texas Beautiful, Black Cat GIS, and Houston Advanced Research Center announced the launch of the Texas Litter Database. The tool enables tracking and analysis of litter collected during cleanups. The site also introduces Take 2 For Texas, a new fast and easy way to contribute data on plastic bottles.

Coordinators and volunteers interested in entering data can explore the users' guide or watch the step-by-step video tutorial to get started.

Download the workshop presentations and view the workshop recording online.

The Houston Advanced Research Center and the Galveston Bay Foundation recently released the latest Galveston Bay Report Card, analyzing and grading the health of Galveston Bay. Galveston Bay received a C for overall health with indicators including water quality, habitat, wildlife, human health risk, coastal change, and pollution events and sources.

While considered a component of pollution events and sources, litter and trash indicators do not have enough information available to make an assessment to affect Galveston Bay’s overall grade. More information about litter and trash and how systematic clean-ups and reduction could impact the health of the bay is available. 

Keep Texas Beautiful’s (KTB) annual Fall Sweep program is underway through November 20. Volunteers interested in participating in the annual statewide cleanup event can visit KTB’s Events Calendar to find a location near them. The KTB Fall Sweep is a program to support the efforts of KTB Affiliates, nonprofits, volunteers, corporations, scout groups, and other community groups to organize fall cleanups and beautification projects. Registered participants will have access to an online event toolkit and receive trash bags and other cleanup supplies. 

When you see someone littering by tossing trash from their car window, make note of the license plate number, vehicle make, time of day, location, date, who tossed the litter (driver, passenger, accidental, etc.), and what was tossed. Report it on TxDOT’s Report a Litterer website or download the app and use that for reporting. TxDOT will compare the information with the Department of Motor Vehicles, and if they find an exact match, TxDOT will send the litterer a Don’t mess with Texas litterbag and a letter reminding them to keep trash off our roads