Hundreds Of Volunteers Gather Across Pittsburgh For 'Garbage Olympics'

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - For more than 700 volunteers across the City of Pittsburgh, Saturday was full of trash.

38 neighborhoods competed in the 4th annual Garbage Olympics.

The event was hosted by the Department of Public Works to see who could clean up the most litter.

The day did not go to "waste".

Volunteers collected more than 1000 bags of trash.

Lena Andrews, an organizer, told KDKA, "A lot of regular cleanups have been canceled because of COVID-19. And everyone's home so there's more garbage being generated by houses and apartments."

Volunteers collected hundreds of car tires.

There were also televisions, shopping carts, and other litter among the junk.

Jocelyn Codner, a volunteer, said she found some items that were very reflective of the current times.

She said, "masks, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer bottles, and plastic gloves, things like that.

The neighborhood with the biggest pile of trash won an Oscar the Grouch trophy.

There were awards for dirtiest volunteer, weirdest item found, and team spirit.

For volunteers, the best reward was bonding with others in the community.

Jamie Mccoin, a volunteer told KDKA, "Especially in a time when you don't meet new people so it's just been really affirming that people care about what's going on in your neighborhood."