Why this novelist is paying people to pick up trash

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Happy Monday, Capital Region! Today, we’re gonna do some trash talking. Yep, we’ve got a cool little story about one local writer’s unique attempt to deal with Albany’s relentless litter problem. It’s a stinker of a story, alright 🦨 

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

This Albany novelist will pay you to pick up litter

If you’re an OG subscriber, you know we’re obsessed with Albany’s litter problem.

It’s one of the most visible signs of the city’s urban indignities. And we’re on a mission to do something about it.

Well, we might have found someone who is equally incensed and motivated by this issue.

Meet Caitlin Waggoner. She came up with a simple but perhaps radical idea: What if, instead of endlessly ranting about Albany’s trash problem, she paid someone to pick it up?

“I walk around every day seething over how much litter there is,” Caitlin tells us. “SeeClickFix didn’t cut it. Complaining didn’t cut it. I just figured—why not throw a little money at it?”

Caitlin isn’t a rich philanthropist. She’s a successful novelist who lives in Albany, near Lark Street. If you’re a lover of fantasy, you might have read some of her books. She calls herself “a humble writer for all your wizard needs.”

Earlier this month, Caitlin posted on Reddit offering to hire a "very part-time litter-picker-upper.” The pay would be $20 an hour. The response was massive.

“I had so many replies I couldn’t even get back to them all,” she says. “Turns out, there are tons of people in Albany who’d happily pick up trash for a little cash—or even just for the good vibes.”

Inspired by years living in Shanghai, where street sweepers are a daily norm, Caitlin realized that Albany’s inconsistent street cleaning—“elephant trucks once in a while”—was never going to solve the problem. But a few bucks, a trash grabber, and some community can-do spirit could go a long way 💪 

“If I can afford to hire a cleaner for my house, why not for the sidewalks I walk every day?” Caitlin says, although she doesn’t actually have a housekeeper.

We decided to sign up for one of these trash-picking shifts. When Caitlin got in touch with us, she called herself the “Reddit litter vigilante.” We say she’s more of a civic hero than a vigilante.

Caitlin wanted to focus our efforts on the busy (and often litter-filled) Lark Street shopping corridor, so that’s where we started.

Here’s what we found during our short shift:

• The sidewalks were actually not nearly as trashy as expected, but we easily filled two large trash bags within an hour.

• We picked up greasy pizza boxes, several bags of dog poop, a brand-new Spectrum WiFi modem (probably stolen from someone’s door), many empty beer cans and liquor bottles, a broken piece of a signed hockey stick, a used syringe (sigh), and a lot of other uninteresting garbage.

• Several neighbors gave us unsolicited and enthusiastic THANK YOUs after noticing our cleanup efforts.

We’re proud to say that Lark Street looked cleaner than we’ve ever seen it after our shift. Of course, it didn’t last long. It took maybe 10 minutes before someone threw a soda cup on the sidewalk. Still, we were happy to put in an hour of honest work against an endless tide of trash.

We applaud Caitlin for leading by example. As we said in our story last year, trash begets trash. The opposite is true too. The more trash YOU pick up, the less people will litter. It really works.

“If someone else wants to copy this—great,” she says. “You don’t have to be rich to make your block look better.”

If you would like to be a part of Caitlin’s cleanup crew, contact her at [email protected]. She’s also interested in creating a collective of residents who are willing to pool money together to pay for regular trash pickers.

Go Caitlin!

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Our full weekend roundup publishes every Thursday. Be sure to check your inboxes!

🖼️ Now on view at the UAlbany Art Museum: Noel Anderson: Black Excellence. The artist’s most comprehensive museum exhibition to date features newly commissioned suspended and stretched Jacquard tapestries and video depicting altered archival and media images centered on Black labor, identity and performance.

🇺🇲 All this week, Crailo State Historic Site invites kids 7-12 for some 18th century-inspired fun at its Summer Sampler!

🏹 On Tuesday, Albany’s Palace Theatre puts on a free screening of Disney’s “Brave.”

🎙️On Wednesday, R&B recording stars Dru Hill (w/ The Men of Soul) play the Empire State Plaza.

🪕 Listen to eclectic bluegrass at Upbeat on the Roof with The Pine Hills Band, Thursday at the Tang Museum.

🎥 Movies on the Hill invites you to a free outdoor screening of the Disney / Pixar hit "Elemental” at Schenectady’s Jerry Burrell Park this Thursday.

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🏎️ The Saratoga Automobile Museum’s Summer Auto Show is Saturday.

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🎭️ Broadway Camp Presents: Urinetown at Proctors on Friday & Saturday.

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