Litter Cleanups

20 Minute Cleanup

March 2023 Update –  the 2023 20 Minute Cleanup is on! As the weather gets nicer and we spend more time outside, why not pick up some trash while you are walking or hiking? Plan your cleanup for anytime in April 2023! Learn more below.

The 20 Minute Cleanup is an annual Howard County spring clean­ing project held the whole month of April.  Most years, busi­nesses, schools, com­mu­nity groups, neigh­bors and indi­vid­u­als help keep trash out of the environment.

Howard County Maryland

How to Participate

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the 20 Minute Cleanup is easy. Just pick a loca­tion and then safely pick up the lit­ter that you find. Use your reg­u­lar trash and recy­cling pickup ser­vice to dis­pose of what you collect.

Once vol­un­teers do a cleanup, we ask that they send an email to 20minutecleanup@howardcountymd.gov with the num­ber of peo­ple who par­tic­ipated and how many bags of trash and recy­cling col­lected. Pic­tures are encour­aged! We post the results and thank all the par­tic­i­pants on this web­site. Cleanup results can also be shared on social media using @livegreenhoward and #20minutecleanup.

If you have any ques­tions about how to par­tic­i­pate, please check out our 20 Minute Cleanup FAQ’s. Or email us. Here is a copy of the printable flyer. Feel free to use the flyer to help pro­mote the project and get peo­ple involved.

Since 2010, over 18,000 people have par­tic­i­pated! Most did more than 20 min­utes, but at 20 min­utes each, that’s over 6,000 hours of vol­un­teer­ing! Thank you Howard County – let’s keep it going. By work­ing together, we make a real difference.

2022 Thank You List | 2022 Photo Album

2021 – cleanup was on, but due to COVID it was not promoted and results were not tracked.

2020 – cancelled due to COVID stay at home order.

2019 Thank You List | 2019 Photo Album

2018 Thank You List | 2018 Photo Album
2017 Thank You List | 2017 Photo Album
2016 Thank You List | 2016 Photo Album

Howard County's Litter Cleanup

Stream Cleanups

Howard County par­tic­i­pates in at least two stream cleanup projects per year. The Recre­ation and Parks Depart­ment leads cleanups each fall as part of the Inter­na­tional Coastal Cleanup. In the spring, we par­tic­i­pate in Project Clean Stream. If you would like to find out when these cleanups are hap­pen­ing, join our volunteer mailing list or fol­low live­g­reen­howard on social media.

Adopt-A-Road

The Howard County Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works is com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing the cit­i­zens of Howard County with a clean and envi­ron­men­tally safe com­mu­nity. Street sweeping is per­formed on most county roads four times a year. The Bureau of High­ways road crews con­sis­tently travel through­out the county clean­ing up debris on county roads. The Bureau of High­ways also oper­ates an Adopt-A-Road program.

Hun­dreds of Howard County cit­i­zens are mak­ing a dif­fer­ence by vol­unteer­ing to mon­i­tor and clean up road­sides. Groups adopt a one to three mile sec­tion of a county road for a min­i­mum of two years. Lit­ter is col­lected as needed, at a min­i­mum of four times per year with a major clean-up each spring.