'Trash Queen of Hell's Kitchen' cleans up New York

This New Yorker is on a mission to cleanup her neighborhood

She calls herself the 'Trash Queen of Hell's Kitchen'

Her campaign started in 2020

after cuts were made to New York's Department of Sanitation

(SOUNDBITE) (English) HELL'S KITCHEN LITTER LEGION FOUNDER, CATIE SAVAGE, SAYING:"I went to stay with my mom in New Jersey for three weeks, my longest time outside of New York in 16 years, and when I came back in early June, it was just a mess. The amount of trash on the street was ridiculous…And then you also had the budget cuts to the Department of Sanitation.… I went out on my own and I was picking up two or three bags on one block.'"

Savage used social media to recruit volunteers

to join her in her cleanup efforts

(SOUNDBITE) (English) HELL'S KITCHEN LITTER LEGION FOUNDER, CATIE SAVAGE, SAYING: 'It started slow, there were maybe like three or four people a week, but then it started to gain momentum and I started getting donations from community members to help pay for all the supplies to go through a lot of bags and gloves. So now we have about 120 people on our email list, we get maybe like 18 to 20 people per cleanup."

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio announced new initiatives in March

to make the city cleaner

including restoring funding for litter basket collection