What is the City Doing?

Not only are we asking our residents and businesses to take responsibility and pitch in - we are asking more of ourselves.  We are striving every day to meet the needs of the unique communities we serve.  And we are not stopping there - we are improvinge economy and efficiency so we can deliver better, more effective service to our customers - YOU.

Greening: Baltimore Is Improving City Assets, Providing Summer Jobs and Increasing the Tree Canopy:

• Enhanced Gateways: Added over 10 miles of median plantings and over 700 new trash cans to City Gateways
• Spruced up City Buildings and Yards: Landscaped new flower beds and container plantings
• Created New Zoning Category for Parks and Open Space
• Generated Summer Greening Jobs for City Youth: To clean and beautify our parks and trails in partnership with organizations such as the Parks and People Foundation and Johnson Controls
• Funded the Vacant Lot Greening Program: To plant over 300 trees on Baltimore’s vacant lots with Bon Secours Hospital
• Doubled the Number of Street Trees Planted in Baltimore in 2006

Cleaning: Since March 1 we have:

• Provided Customer Service Training to Solid Waste Crews:
  • Addressing the proper handling of resident trash cans to reduce resident complaints and frustration AND because it’s the right way to do the job.
• Taken service complaints seriously and addressed them immediately – with corrective action being taken by the crew in question or by the crew supervisor and/or superintendent.
• Moved Sanitation Code Enforcment to Baltimore Housing (May 14) to increase efficiency of management and service deliver.
• Moved Baltimore Housing Cleaning and Boarding to Solid Waste (May 14) augmenting and complimenting existing cleaning operations.
• Scrubbed our Solid Waste yards with plans for new fence lines.  We’ve also extended  citizen drop-off summer hours at all Solid Waste district service centers.
• Focused resources and energy on placing and maintaining more public trash cans along gateways and at bus-stops across the City with dedicated collection crews maintain the cans in our most heavily traveled corridors.  Solid Waste has committed an additional 747 trash cans to bus stops and gateways since March 1.
• Established Graffiti Removal as a 7 day operation along all major gateways providing a maximum 3 day response time for graffiti complaints city wide.
• Established cleaning of neighborhood parks assigned to Solid Waste as a 7 day operation during the summer months.
• Reduced response time for cleaning complaints (dirty alleys, backyards, lots) from 21 to 14 days.
• Reduced response time for boarding of vacant houses from 21 to 7 days.
• Increased mechanical sweeping operations to serve an additional 320 miles of streets each week.

• View the full report (Initiative for a Cleaner Baltimore)

We encourage you to use 311 to report litter and trash problems – 311 provides an easy way to report problems and enables your service agencies to effectively manage, and be held accountable for, service delivery.

Next Steps

• Double City’s Tree Canopy over next 30 Years: TreeBaltimore Urban Forestry Management Plan calls for doubling our tree canopy to improve air and water quality and increase wildlife habitat
• Give 1,000 Trees to Residents: Part of the TreeBaltimore Plan includes offering City residents trees to plant in their yards

Solid Waste Service Centers

Debris, Bulk Trash and Recycling Drop-off Locations: There are five locations throughout Baltimore where residents may dispose of waste materials for free:

1. Quarantine Road Sanitary Landfill, 6100 Quarantine Road
2. Western Sanitation Yard, 701 Reedbird Avenue
3. Eastern Sanitation Yard, 6101 Bowleys Lane
4. NW Sanitation Yard, 2840 Sisson Street
5. NW Transfer Station, 5030 Reisterstown Road

• These locations are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday (except Northwest Transfer Station at 5030 Reisterstown Road – open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.)
• Residents must show proof of residency and bring materials in personal vehicles – unmodified pickup trucks rated ¾ ton or smaller
• For more information on drop-off locations, please call (410) 396-8450

Enforcement

• Content and links coming soon