Quality of Life Team

Charlotte Solid Waste Services provides most of the litter cleanup throughout the city. In addition to collecting trash from homes every day, street sweepers clean about 12,000 miles of streets each year. The department also takes care of 500 public trash cans, including those at transit stations.

Solid Waste Services also has full-time cleanup crews. They collect litter along 12 routes each day, including 60 routes in the urban core every two weeks and 90 major corridor routes every quarter. Crews also respond to calls and 311 reports.

In 2024, Solid Waste Services collected about 7,000 tons of trash through these efforts.

Charlotte’s Office of Sustainability encourages businesses to reduce waste and help keep areas around their property clean. Charlotte’s Green Crown program recognizes restaurants and beverage businesses that use environmentally friendly practices.

Businesses can earn recognition by showing leadership in waste reduction, saving energy and water, reducing pollution, and supporting the community. The program is currently being updated, and more information will be available soon.

CATS and Keep Charlotte Beautiful operate the Adopt-A-Stop program, where volunteers help clean select bus stops across the city. So far, the program has recorded 112 volunteer hours across all six Corridors of Opportunity, and it is still growing.

The organization also partners with local organizations, like South End Social, to team up for events like cleanups along the Rail Trail in South End.

In addition, CATS staff clean bus stops and stations by removing litter, broken glass, and damaged shelter pieces. CATS is improving stop amenities by adding more shelters, concrete pads, benches, and trash cans.

NCDOT removes litter from 15,539 miles of roadway in Mecklenburg County each month. In 2025, contract crews collected 250 tons of roadside litter.

The state also runs the Adopt-A-Highway program, where volunteers agree to clean two miles of roadway at least four times a year. For highways that are not safe for volunteers, NCDOT also offers a Sponsor-A-Highway program.

Storm Water Services works to protect more than 3,000 miles of streams and shorelines in Mecklenburg County. Staff teach residents how storm drains connect to creeks and why litter and pollution harm water quality. Storm Water Services offers year-round education for schools, neighborhoods, and businesses. Volunteers can join the Adopt-A-Stream program to help remove trash from local waterways.

In 2024, about 3,800 volunteers collected nearly 80,000 pounds of litter from streams across the county.

Landscape Management maintains more than 1,000 medians and right-of-way locations and over 300 acres of city-owned land, including properties near municipal buildings and cemeteries. These areas are cleaned and maintained weekly or every other week.

Before cutting grass or trimming plants, crews remove any trash or debris. Sometimes they find large items such as tires, mattresses, or car parts, and these are removed with help from Solid Waste Services.

The team also oversees more than 600 acres of vacant properties, including tree preservation areas. Some of these locations face illegal dumping, and staff work to remove debris as quickly as possible.

Keep Charlotte Beautiful (KCB) is a program of Charlotte’s Housing & Neighborhood Services department. Since 1974, KCB has helped educate and empower residents to reduce waste and take part in local cleanups.

KCB runs the city’s Adopt-a-Street and Adopt-a-Stop programs and is the primary source of volunteer street cleanups in Charlotte. The program also offers K-5 lessons on waste reduction and litter prevention in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

In 2024, volunteers contributed over 11,000 hours in picking up over 5,500 bags of litter throughout the city.

Some of the most littered items in Charlotte result from the single-use nature of modern packaging. By selecting products and packaging that have multiple uses, you encourage companies to sell fewer single-use products. A classic example is using a reusable steel water bottle instead of a plastic water bottle.

Consider a visit to the Innovation Barn to learn more about the movement to reduce single-use items in Charlotte. If you must use single-use items, try to find products that are recyclable. Mecklenburg County offers plastic film (like grocery bag) and foam packaging recycling at their drop-off centers in addition to the many items you can put in your curbside container. To see what you can and cannot recycle in Charlotte, visit the Mecklenburg County Solid Waste Services website

This program is an easy, free way to give back to your community. We require all adoptees to clean up a minimum of one mile of road at least three times every fiscal year (from July of one year to June of the next year). Keep Charlotte Beautiful lends out litter grabbers, gloves, vests, and trash and recycling bags when you need them and can help you arrange for the city to pick up your bags after your cleanup. The city will also install two free, relatively customizable (no offensive content, websites, hashtags, social media handles, etc.) street signs in places of your choice along the route.

Adopt a City Street

Keep Charlotte Beautiful requires all adoptees to clean up around their adopted bus stop at least twice per month. We provide these volunteers with permanent supplies, and they receive program incentives (sign and bus passes after three months, bus stop improvements after a year) as they progress in the program. The AABS application is also part of the city’s CLT Community Page, where applicants must create a profile before submitting an application. Currently, bus stops are available to adopt along the city’s Corridors of Opportunity.

Similar to Adopt a Street, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services offers Adopt a Stream, where volunteers commit to cleaning at least a mile of stream twice each year. NCDOT offers and Adopt-a-Highway program for state-maintained roads, and Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation offers frequent park and greenway cleanups.

Don’t think you’ll have the time for a long-term commitment like Adopt a Street but still want to be regularly involved? Sign up for our Volunteer Brigade to be the first to receive news about upcoming volunteer events and special opportunities with Keep Charlotte Beautiful.

We understand that some folks want to pick up litter without the obligation that comes with the Adopt-a-City-Street Program and the e-mails that come with the Volunteer Brigade. For that reason, you can request litter pickup supplies at any time, and afterward, we simply ask that you report your cleanup.