Waste Pioneer: Catie Savage, the “Trash Queen of Hell’s Kitchen”

“DSNY does a lot to keep NYC clean, but DSNY is not responsible for the sidewalk. People don’t realize this. Many don’t understand that it is their obligation to clean the sidewalk. If everybody cleaned up the sidewalks & curbs in front of their property, we’d have less litter.”
—Catie Savage, founder of Hell’s Kitchen Litter Legion

Catie and a cleanup crew. A veteran of the fashion industry, Catie often designs her own outfits for cleanup days. This dress says TQ, for Trash Queen. All Hail the Trash Queen of Hell’s Kitchen!

In April 2020, Catie Savage started noticing masks and gloves all over the streets of Hell’s Kitchen. As a volunteer for the Manhattan Community Boathouse, she knew that when it rained, trash from the street often made its way into the Hudson River via storm drains. She didn’t want all those unsanitary masks and gloves to end up in the water, so she armed herself with a trash grabber and started picking them up and throwing them away, day after day. 

Catie couldn’t understand the mentality behind tossing used masks and gloves on the ground.

She herself was using sewing skills she’d honed during a long career in the fashion industry to make reusable masks for friends and family. As the Pandemic progressed, she watched the streets of her neighborhood get even dirtier: Hell’s Kitchen restaurants started serving drinks in to-go cups, as well as takeout food, and a lot of the containers and cups were left all over the place. At the same time, corner litter basket service had been reduced by COVID budget cuts. Public bins across the city were overflowing. More than just masks and gloves, trash of all kinds was everywhere. 

Catie couldn’t ignore it.

On her walks back home from work in the Garment District, she would notice 30-40 bins a night that were full but not emptied. She’d file a 311 complaint online about each one of them, “not to complain but to make a point to the city government that Sanitation services needed to be restored.” 

“It’s about the data. This is the data that needs to be documented as evidence to push for restoring budget cuts,” she explains.

Meanwhile, Catie committed to helping with the litter problem. She walked around her block and filled up three kitchen garbage bags by herself. It was a big task for one person, so she posted about these efforts on her Instagram, thinking maybe more people would want to help. 

She was right. What started as an individual passion project born out of curiosity about litter management led to the creation of the Litter Legion, now a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which has hosted over 117 group clean ups with more than 1,689 participants including at least 350 unique volunteers. Since 2020, Litter Legion has collected a combined 12,516 lbs. of litter including 1,622 lbs. of recycling diverted from landfill. Last year, Litter Legion was voted W42ST's Best Community Organization of 2023!! 

What started as an individual passion project to clean up litter led to the creation of what was voted W42ST's Best Community Organization of 2023.

At first, only about three or four people would join to pick up litter. Sometimes, a group of friends would get together and volunteer. One time, an LQBTQIA+ flag football team joined. It helped that for a lot of people, “there was little else to do” — as Catie puts it, laughing that trash pickup was easy entertainment while much of the city was shut down or slowed down. But over months and years, through word of mouth, her movement grew. 

People would stop and ask what she and her volunteers were doing, and then maybe the next time, they’d join.

“People don’t always feel empowered to [clean up the streets] on their own,” says Catie, who was glad to be the one to start taking litter into her own hands — literally. She adds, for anyone who wants to make more fuss about visible waste and get out there and get cleaning: “Don’t feel weird.” 

She was initially paying out of her own pocket for bags, gloves and trash pickers. (And she’d wipe down the grabbers in her home after each cleanup.) The W42ST team donated one of their red Radio Flyer wagons to her, for carrying tools. Eventually, she bought the famous “Trash Queen”-branded cart that supplies all cleanups with grabbers, bags, and other supplies. Now, she gets some donations from Hell’s Kitchen residents, and can use those funds to procure more cleanup tools. 

One time, she decided to knock on the window of her local Sanitation garage, M4, just to say hi and rave about how she was a big fan of their work. At the time, a lot of the Sanitation workforce was either unwell, or had sadly passed away, or retired because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who remained were working overtime to pick up an influx of residential trash, as suddenly New Yorkers who spent 40 hours a week at the office were spending those hours at home. (DSNY is responsible for residential waste whereas private waste haulers handle commercial buildings.) Catie knew picking up after New York was grueling work, and she was devoted to helping her neighborhood’s Sanitation Workers. 

“DSNY does a lot to keep NYC clean. But DSNY is not responsible for the sidewalk,” explains Catie, adding, “But people don’t realize this. Many don’t understand that it is their obligation to clean the sidewalk. If everybody cleaned up the sidewalks & curbs in front of their property, we’d have less litter.” 

To help with this, Litter Legion also makes and distributes cleanup kits that contain two trash bags, two pairs of disposable gloves and a guide of best practices. To date, they have distributed over 1,000 cleanup kits to local businesses.

Catie’s life’s work is about taking responsibility and helping others. Residents of bigger apartment buildings tend to rely on their superintendents to clean up any trash messes in front of a building. But sometimes, we need to get our hands dirty. One morning, Catie noticed all of the bags outside of her building had been opened up. She went out and helped her super clean up that mess.

It’s about taking responsibility and helping others.

She’s trying to help foster a new culture of cleanliness in New York City. “We shouldn’t just absolve ourselves [of a mess] because it’s someone else’s responsibility.” 

Intentional cleanups have also been a great way to meet more people in the neighborhood. Catie and her volunteers feel a true sense of community stewardship and appreciation for each other. That’s the mantra of Litter Legion, says Catie: “Building community one piece of litter at a time.”  

“It’s impossible for me to walk down the street without running into somebody that I know. Or I’ll be standing in front of a trash can taking its picture and someone will say, ‘I thought that was you!’ Because who else would be taking pictures of trash?”

“People know we’re doing something to help,” she says. 

Today, Litter Legion has a roster of regular volunteers of all ages. Two young locals, brothers Emmet and Carl have received Presidential Volunteer Service Awards for their consistent work picking up trash with Litter Legion. Catie says that community cleanups help reinforce to kids that litter needs to be dealt with, so that it doesn’t go into water or hurt animals. It’s important for young people to reckon with New York’s habit of throwing trash on the ground, or thinking that keeping things clean is somebody else’s job. (She says kids are also great at helping make the cleanup kits and deliver them to businesses.) 

The Hell’s Kitchen Litter Legion is fun stewardship for all ages.

When it comes to her community, Catie keeps it fun. The Litter Legion has hosted costumed Halloween cleanups and Earth Day cleanups — also with costumes, but Eco-Superhero themed: past guests have included Captain Planet, someone dressed as a compost bin, Earth Girl, and the “Skip the Stuff” Bill where someone covered herself in plastic forks and knives unwantedly received with delivery orders.

Cleaning up is fun when you do it with friends!

She also hosts Happy Hour cleanups on weekday evenings in the summer that end at local bars who say thank you with free appetizers, and other “Treats for Trash” cleanups that end with a reward, such as a scoop of ice cream from the new Ben and Jerry’s on W 51st St. 

A lot of volunteers who have attended Litter Legion cleanups have also become more engaged with Hell’s Kitchen’s block associations, and more interested in meeting neighbors at open forums operated by people who live in the neighborhood. Catie points out that younger generations need to know these groups exist, and need to get involved. 

“Local Politics has the most impact on your day-to-day life. Be aware of what’s happening and what you can do,” she says. 

Catie knows that cleaning up is not always easy or safe work (volunteers don’t pick up syringes, for example; those require an online 311 request for the Department of Sanitation’s Environmental Police Unit), but she believes in the power of taking personal responsibility to keep the city tidy, and encourages more New Yorkers to take part in keeping our city clean. She understands that it’s a time commitment, and it’s worth it for a healthier neighborhood and a closer community.

She’s inspired by other cleanup groups in the city like Clean Up Crown Heights, the Anti-Litter Project in the Bronx (which also started during the Pandemic but is no longer active), the Clean Bushwick Initiative, and Abuela Neighborhood Maintenance in Queens. (If you’re a resident near these neighborhoods, be sure to check out their work!) 

“Be a problem solver, be the squeaky wheel and difficult button-pusher,” says Catie with a smile. “Figure out how to make things better.”

For anyone interested in starting an initiative like Litter Legion in their own neighborhood, Catie recommends checking out the Sanitation Foundation’s Tool Grant Opportunities and Webinar Training Series (which she helped develop!). 

If you want to volunteer with the Litter Legion (especially if you’re a Hell’s Kitchen resident), check out their upcoming events!