DPW

ANTI_LITTER

THE GOLD PLANTHE GOLD PLAN

H O W F R A C T U R E D R E S P O N S I B I L I T I E S C O N T R I B U T E T O P I T T S B U R G H ’ S I N A B I L I T Y T O H A N D L E I T S T R A S H C R I S I S , A N D H O W W E C A N F I X I T

SENSORED LITTER CAN CREW LITTER INDEX

MONITORING DUMP SITES PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

NEW TOOLS FOR SUCCESSNEW TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

By taking a data & strategy or iented mindset to l i t ter and i l legal dumping problems, we've created tools that wi l l be a v i tal foundat ion for the future work to be done by Department of Publ ic Works with our proposed GOLD plan.

The best example of how special izat ion and dedicat ion leads to ef f ic iency , this crew is s inglular ly focused on using data to perform their sole task better than when the responsibi l i ty was spl i t between several DPW Divis ions .

This ef fort is projected to save the City $1.5 mil l ion a year!

The new, object ive survey-based technology to map out where l i t ter is in our City without rely ing on responses f rom the publ ic .

This year ly indexing of al l of our streets gives us quant i f iable basel ines and goals to work towards .

I l legal dump s i tes are now being tracked in Cartegraph as assets , a l lowing for detai led, exact histor ies of dumping for each locat ion, determining stat ist ics for reci t iv ism rates , average costs , and effect iveness of st rategies going forward.

Hi-res v ideo cameras are being integrated into enforcement as well .

Outreach to the publ ic has taken higher pr ior i ty .

Start ing with standardiz ing our Volunteer Appl icat ion process , expanding the City 's involvement in the Garbage Olympics , and start ing the Clean Pit tsburgh Newsl i t ter for highly involved res idents .

T E C H N O L O G Y L E A D S T H E W A Y F O R O U R F U T U R E

THE BURNS MCDONNELL STUDYTHE BURNS MCDONNELL STUDY

This paper provided an eye-opening analys is of costs and the opportunity to compare and contrast ef forts among s imilar Pennsylvania munic ipal i t ies .

Pittsburgh part ic ipated in a state-wide look at how much al l this l i t ter and i l legal dumping costs . The study found that the ful l costs were often obscured as the enforcement , abatement , and prevent ion responsibi l i t ies were often spl i t up between City departments , div is ions , and non-prof i ts .

The results found that Pennsylvania spent a total of $68 mi l l ion a year on l i t ter and i l legal dumping!

Of the many di f ferent ways that each c i ty tackled these issues , the study found that many of the PA c i t ies succeeded in consol idat ing their enforcement into SWEEP teams, or Sol id Waste Enforcement and Educat ion Program .

Of the part ic ipat ing municipal i t ies with SWEEP teams, we averaged the amount of off icers per capita , and found Pit tsburgh was extremely lacking in comparison.

We are consider ing DPW's Missy Rosenfeld the City 's sole ful l - t ime trash-dedicated off icer . While s imilar enforcement issues are handled by others , i t ' s often a small part of their responsibi l i ty .

The pract ical applicat ion of enforcement according to this confusing f lowchart means that a s ingle piece of l i t ter could be the responsibi l i ty of many different departments based solely on i f i t was located a few inches to the left or r ight .

OUR CURRENT STATEOUR CURRENT STATE

Pittsburgh's t rash enforcement responsibi l i t ies are f ractured between many Departments . To f ind who is responsible for what , we found that you had to ask a ser ies of " i f , then" quest ions to guide through the confusing maze unt i l you reach the correct conclusion.

For example : I f someone wants to report l i t ter , they can easi ly f ind that in 311. However , once there , they may f ind that the report ing opt ion is only for publ ic property . They may never f ind out that for pr ivate property , i t ’ s label led “Weeds/Debris . ”

Because of this , not only do requests rout inely get in i t ia l ly sent to the wrong place and we spend an inordinate amount of t ime passing 311 requests back and forth between deparments , but this also requires each and every indiv idual person who comes into contact with the requests to have an encylcopedic knowledge of not only what their department is responsible for , but what every other department is responsible for .

This is l ikely the biggest reason we've been told by City Counci l members that t rash related issues is the number one type of complaint cal ls they receive .

CONFUSION MEETS CONFUSIONCONFUSION MEETS CONFUSION

Adding to the problem of these similar responsibi l i t ies being spread throughout City government, we've known that the current misleading 311 category names means most l i t ter and i l legal dumping requests are often routed incorrectly .

A V E R A G E R A T E S O F R E R O U T E S B Y 311 C A T E G O R Y

I t ' s important to understand that separat ing out tasks according to condit ions is not the same thing as special izat ion.

What we can enforce according to the municipal code and what we end up enforc ing ends up being very di f ferent things . This is a natural result of l imited resources . But when enforcement is broken up between City departments based on a confusing maze of condit ions , the gaps of what isn ’ t taken care of widens considerably .

As we f ragment the responsibi l i t ies between departments , counter intuit ively we end up decreasing the amount of work able to be completed rather than increasing i t .

SPECIALIZATION SPECIALIZATION VS SEPARATIONVS SEPARATION

POWERPOWER

RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY

ABILITYABILITY

POWERPOWER

RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY

RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY RESPONSIBILITYRESPONSIBILITY

ABILITYABILITY ABILITYABILITY

ABILITYABILITY ABILITYABILITY

W H E N L I T T E R

I S N ' T Y O U R

F I R S T P R I O R I T Y , I T O F T E N E N D S U P

Y O U R L A S T

P R I O R I T Y

This f ractur ing af fects the way we clean up as well .

With the disbandment of a s ingle l i t ter col lect ion crew, i ts responsibi l i t ies were spl i t between the DPW Streets Divis ions . S ince each Streets div is ion has dozens - i f not hundreds- of other responsibi l i t ies , this dissolut ion of a focused crew meant l i t ter instantly went f rom high pr ior i ty to low pr ior i ty .

I t ' s widely bel ieved that l i t ter has greatly increased in the absence of of a dedicated crew, and s ince this work isn ' t h igh pr ior i ty among the divis ions , we don't have data to back up or dispute that assert ion.

We have to reform a crew, with open standards , data-dr iven pr ior i t ies , and accountabi l i ty to make this task a pr ior i ty again .

NOT JUSTNOT JUST

ENFORCEMENTENFORCEMENT

"I have never seen so much garbage everywhere!"

"It's amazing when you travel to other cities and have the realization that, 'oh wow, this city is really clean' because the bar is set so low in your hometown."

"And the dumping on the hillsides and alleys. My God. How the hell is this city "most livable?"

"Pittsburgh is the filthiest city I’ve ever lived- even worse than Chicago.”

“And why doesn’t the city clean up, we pay enough in taxes. Of all the cities I have visited this is the dirtiest.”

*REAL COMMENTS FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

ENVIRONMENTALENVIRONMENTAL

OPERATIONS &OPERATIONS &

COMPLIANCECOMPLIANCE

DIVISIONDIVISION

GOALS

ON

LITTER &

DUMPING

Using the lessons learned f rom how special izat ion and consol idat ion of tasks br ings innovat ion and focus , we propose creat ing a DPW Divis ion that handles every aspect of our ongoing trash cr is is : enforcement , abatement , and prevent ion. These branches would closely coordinate in solv ing each problem.

The abatement branch handl ing the Sensored Li t ter Cans , Clean and Liens , and general c lean up duties . This would provide a larger pool for each task as needed, but never leave any task as low pr ior i ty .

The enforcement branch of off icers would pul l the dut ies currently spread between DPW, PLI , ES , and DOMI and f inal ly make these tasks a high pr ior i ty .

And an administrat ion branch handl ing prevent ion, outreach, data analys is and grant wri t ing wil l be handled by special ists working closely with the ent i re div is ion.

CONCENTRATION MEETS CONCENTRATIONCONCENTRATION MEETS CONCENTRATION

The consolidation of these responsibilities solves several problems at once. With abatement and enforcement working jointly out of the same division, this eliminates the need to continuously reroute 311 requests between departments. We no longer need to navigate the series of "if, then" questions to figure out who's responsible, but rather ask a single question:

"Is it trash on the ground?"

This streamlining means that the public will not need to submit the 311 correctly the first time -which they currently rarely do. It will also mean that other departments and divisions will not require an encyclopedic knowledge of responsibilities, instead only referring to that single question to know who to send it to:

"Is it trash on the ground?"

"Quality of Life" ticketing Curbside pickup of e-waste and tires Yearly Litter Indexing Zero Waste and Carbon Neutral plans Municipal code changes Vacant Lot Strategies Process for incorporating public input

This concentration of personnel is also a concentration of expertise, providing an environment and foundation necessary to promote collaboration on other needed long term plans and projects that have previously been seen as "too big" or "too difficult" to pursue. These include but are not limited to:

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND EQUITYENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

Developing standardized pract ices for determining work leads to equitable outcomes. Using the object ive , quant i f iable data of the Li t ter Index, the divis ion wil l pr ior i t ize work needed in the most l i t tered areas over those that need less help keeping clean.

There can be dozens of overlapping causes of why some areas are more l i ttered than others . Some are outside of our control , and others we can work to change.

While we are grappling with past mistakes of how the City once unfair ly pr ior i t ized clean up work based on pol it ical and personal connections, we cannot make the mistake that treating al l new service request equally leads to equitable outcomes. And since the requests for l i t ter and dumping largely outweighs the amount able to be completed, pr ior i t iz ing work has to happen.

Our QAlert service request system is a great service for interact ing with the public , but i t is a poor tool to analyze data and determine need.

When we look at a heat map of 311 requests for l i t ter , we aren't necessari ly looking at a map of need, but a map of where people are who choose to use 311. Many places with the greatest need may not bother call ing 311 because they haven't found success using that system before.

We now have a Litter Index, which wil l be a yearly surveying of every street in Pittsburgh giving each street segment a 1 through 4 rat ing of how l i ttered i t is . This provides us a quantif iable, object ive metr ic to know ourselves what areas need the most attention.

By weighing requests according to the Litter Index scores , and by doing work in places we know need the most attention without having to be requested through 311, we are pract ic ing environmental just ice in a way that the Department of Public Works has never been able to pursue before.

I f we want Pit tsburghers to be cleaner people , we have to give them a clean City to l ive in FIRST.

Behavioral modif icat ion psychology has studied the reasons why people l i t ter and how to change that behavior . These studies show that messaging that tel ls people not to l i t ter is largely ineffect ive , i f not sometimes counterproduct ive which may end up increasing l i t ter ing!

So i f messaging doesn't work , what does?

The number one prompt that leads people to l i t ter is seeing l i t ter on the ground already . This doesn' t mean that cleaning a street of l i t ter once ensures that the street wi l l never be l i t tered again , but rather that by keeping streets as c lean as possible over a per iod of years , we are able to set a standard of behavior that the publ ic wi l l eventual ly adapt to as the norm.

Pi t tsburgh is desperate for a change, but we cannot expect the publ ic to do this on their own. We cannot tel l people to change their minds and their behavior , but we can alter their environment that shapes their att i tudes .

When we understand that abatement and enforcement IS prevent ion, we are able to strategize and plan according to the best data avai lable .

Using these tools , we are able to move away f rom REACTIVE work and be PROACTIVE in sett ing the standard for Pit tsburgh to l ive up to .

UNDERSTANDING PREVENTIONUNDERSTANDING PREVENTION

E N V I R O N M E N T S H A P E S B E H A V I O R

City Wide Litter and Illegal Dumping Master Plan

Through this master planning process, we will set a comprehensive vision for the future of Pittsburgh's problems with trash

The Sensored Can Crew is projected to save the City of Pi t tsburgh $1.5 mil l ion a year . We should be using that savings to invest in expanding the same data dr iven and focused strategies to al l the garbage that doesn' t make i ts way into cans .

Engage PGH al lows us to open this plan up to the publ ic , and I bel ieve that i t would be met with a huge amount of support . We can explain how our new tools such as the Li t ter index would guide how we determine where crews clean, and we can ensure the past mistakes of the Redd Up Crew are not repeated.

We can make a contract with our res idents . WeWe can make a contract with our res idents . We have the opportunity to say , "We are t ry inghave the opportunity to say , "We are t ry ing harder , P i t tsburgh. And we want you to as well . "harder , P i t tsburgh. And we want you to as well . "