Pueblo cleanup program removed nearly 200 tons of trash, thousands of needles in 2023

James Bartolo, Pueblo Chieftain
·4 min read

Pueblo's Team Up to Clean Up program removed 182 tons of trash, 17,518 needles, 2,215 shopping carts and 1,515 tires from city property in 2023.

Funded by $1 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, Team Up to Clean Up began in October 2022 as a way to remove trash that had accumulated throughout the city. Over $400,000 of the initial $1 million was spent in the program's first 15 months.

Pueblo Parks and Recreation director Steven Meier told the Chieftain that Team Up to Clean Up's remaining funds of over $590,000 should last the program through 2024 and most of 2025.

"We take recommendations from the community," Meier said. "They call in and let us know if they see areas where there's trash and are on public property... Day to day, week to week, we jump around and clean up those areas as well as revisit our same old sites."

A crew of workers for Pueblo's Team Up to Clean Up program targeted an area of north Fountain Creek for their cleanup efforts in March 2023, where they collected 3,500 pounds of trash, 35 carts and four tires. The haul required three trips to the dump.
A crew of workers for Pueblo's Team Up to Clean Up program targeted an area of north Fountain Creek for their cleanup efforts in March 2023, where they collected 3,500 pounds of trash, 35 carts and four tires. The haul required three trips to the dump.

During a Feb. 5 city council work session presentation, Meier and Team Up to Clean Up coordinator Barbara Alphin highlighted several locations where tons of refuse were removed last year.

Sites demanding significant cleanup in the last three months of 2023 included locations east and west of Fountain Creek, along the Arkansas River Trail, and under the Cesar Chavez Bridge, according to Meier and Alphin's presentation to council.

"This past November, we ran into a site that had eight or nine camps that were abandoned... 34 needles in one location," Alphin told council.

The 34 needles, along with nearly two tons of trash, were found during a Nov. 29-30 cleanup near the corner of East 18th Street and Erie Avenue. Earlier that month, cleanup crews visited two other sites near Fountain Creek, where a combined 120 needles and 4.8 tons of trash were removed.

However, November was far from Team Up to Clean Up's busiest month of 2023. Crews picked up over 33 tons of trash in June and disposed of 4,649 needles in March.

Several cleanup sites routinely visited by Team Up to Clean Up crews, including the sites along Fountain Creek, are near homeless encampments. However, individuals inhabiting cleanup sites are given a 72-hour notice to gather their belongings and move to a different location.

"They are pretty good about moving on and understanding — they know the drill," Meier said.

A homeless encampment along Fountain Creek in Pueblo.
A homeless encampment along Fountain Creek in Pueblo.

Could a cleanup program help alleviate homelessness in Pueblo?

Throughout its existence, Team Up to Clean Up has consisted of about nine to ten part-time employees, with Alphin being the only full-time employee. Crew members use gloves, grabbers, trash bags and, in some cases, wheelbarrows, trash cans, shovels, or rakes.

The possibility of employing homeless individuals to assist with cleanups has been floated by several city leaders, including city Councilor Joe Latino.

"We need to do what they are doing in some other places," Latino said at the Feb. 5 work session. "People are willing to go to work. They are paying them to clean up weeds, the trash and other kinds of things... Pueblo needs to be creative."

Programs employing homeless individuals to pick up trash have seen success in cities like Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Glendale and Tuscon, Arizona, according to the Arizona Republic. Similar programs have been piloted in Fort Worth, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Oakland, California, among other cities, according to Cascade Public Media.

Meier hasn't ruled out Pueblo following the lead of other cities by employing homeless individuals. The challenge is finding an organization to partner with.

"If (homeless individuals) were paid by the city, they would have to be on our payroll and sign up... That would be hard to manage. More than likely, you wouldn't get anybody because they wouldn't want to give you their information. That doesn't say it can be done, we've got to get the right partners in place to do that."

In the meantime, Team Up to Clean Up continues to respond to community cleanup recommendations.

Individuals with a cleanup site in mind can make a recommendation by contacting the Pueblo Mayor's Office at 719-553-2655 or the Pueblo Parks and Recreation Department at 719-553-2790.

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: How much trash and used needles were cleaned up in Pueblo in 2023?