Meet the man on a mission to rid Rochester of litter — and how to help

Matt Apple was 22 when he started really thinking about litter — the garbage that gets left behind near park benches, tossed into roadways and blown from overstuffed trash cans.

He'd just become a dad, and it shifted his perspective, he said.

"Becoming a father was a huge," Apple said. "It allowed me to look deeper into the value of community."

He noticed litter everywhere, he said, and decided to do something to improve Rochester for everyone, including his son.

Apple is now the head of Walking for Rochester, a nonprofit organization that focuses solely on picking up litter. Apple and two other founders started the group in late 2020 and have seen exponential growth each year since. By making litter cleanup easy for volunteers and offering a simple way for people needing community service hours to participate, Apple expects the group's fourth season of litter pickup will be its most impactful yet.

"They just need to show up, literally," Apple said of prospective Walking for Rochester volunteers. The group provides everything needed to help keep the city's communities clean safely, he said.

What is Walking for Rochester?

The goal of Walking for Rochester, which is entirely volunteer-run, is getting litter out of Rochester's neighborhoods and making it as convenient as possible for people to help, Apple said.

Until the launch of Walking for Rochester, litter wasn't any group or government agency's mission, Apple said. But "litter requires upkeep" through regular attention, he said.

The group saw significant growth during its first three years.

In its first year, 2021, Walking for Rochester held seven cleanups and had about 50 volunteers. In its second year, during 33 cleanups, 91 volunteers gathered 725 pounds of garbage. The third year? Forty-five cleanups, 291 volunteers and 1,500 pounds of trash.

So far this year, Apple said, there have only been three cleanup events, but more than 50 people have already picked up 370 pounds of trash.

How to get involved in Walking for Rochester litter pickup

From April through September, Walking for Rochester hosts community cleanup events every Wednesday and Saturday, weather permitting. Volunteers can simply show up to participate.

The community cleanup schedule is posted on the group's website, walkingforrochester.org. The website's homepage also has a sign-up form for regular email updates. In addition, the group posts updates on Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Volunteers are required to sign a waiver each season. Waivers protect the organization from liability, Apple said, but more importantly, they make volunteers aware of the risks involved in gathering garbage.

"Picking up litter is dangerous," Apple said, citing the potential for volunteers to encounter broken glass or other sharp objects. But the nonprofit provides equipment to conduct cleanups safely: gloves, grabbers and buckets.

Walking for Rochester offers an incentive to attend community cleanups. There's a raffle at every cleanup event where volunteers can win prizes, Apple said.

How to use the Walking for Rochester mobile app — and why

In addition to its organized community cleanup events, Walking for Rochester developed a free mobile app for Android devices so that people gathering litter on their own can document where they picked it up and how much they collected.

The group provides all the necessary equipment — including an Android phone — to anyone who wants to use the app to track their own cleanups, Apple said. Someone from the organization will drop supplies off at their door, he said.

When people use the app during litter cleanups, it helps the group know where attention is being paid to litter and where more is needed, Apple said.

Another main function of the app is giving people in need of community service hours a verifiable way to collect litter without direct supervision, Apple said.

It can be a challenge for people to find community service programs that are flexible in terms of time and location and zero cost to the participant, Apple said. For instance, the Walking for Rochester app lets people who must fulfill regular service hours to live in a halfway house collect litter when and where it's convenient for them, he said.

The app has several measures in place to ensure users are actually performing their community service, including tracking the user's location and asking for a photo of the litter collected, he said.

Over the past two seasons, Walking for Rochester recorded over 400 community service hours, Apple said.

Faith Horn said her experience using the Walking for Rochester app to fulfill required community service hours was seamless. "It was hard enough to find other options to begin with,” she said.

The app itself was easy to use and she set her own hours, planning her cleanups with friends. They had fun completing her service hours together, she said, choosing to clean up parks and trails that were easy for them to get to and felt safe. People don't have to go far to find a place to clean up, she said.

"In the grand scheme of things, there's trash everywhere," Horn said.

When she was done logging her hours, Walking for Rochester emailed the proof of her service to the person keeping track of her progress, she said.

Apple said that the group's costs for equipment are about $10 per volunteer. That includes providing a bucket, a grabber and gloves. Walking for Rochester accepts donations through its website and holds an annual fundraiser in the fall.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Meet the man on a mission to rid Rochester of litter — and how to help