The town of East Orange is an urban community located in Essex County, New Jersey. It has a population of approximately 69,000 people with little industry and most of the land use is residential, commercial or institutional. We noticed that there is a lot of litter all over our city. We decided to take action.

The litter comes from pedestrians, illegal dumping, and people throwing trash out of cars while traveling in our community. Many vacant lots are not maintained by private individuals or by the town of East Orange. People are illegally dumping their trash into them, providing unsafe playing areas for children, and causing unhealthy conditions for the citizens of the community. Many East Orange litter laws are not being enforced contributing to the on going litter problem in the city. Police are burdened with more serious criminal activity causing litter and illegal dumping laws to be overlooked.

Research shows that many programs are being utilized to help alleviate the problem of illegal dumping, vacant lots, and litter in their community.

Newark City Spaces Program was launched in 1995, which converted run down vacant lots into playgrounds.
Openlands Project was started to allow communities to turn vacant lots into community gardens.
Philadelphias Neighborhood Partnership Program and Pittsburghs Block Adoption programs were organized to help with the litter problems within their cities.
The Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative is a program for communities who need economic development and pose a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of residents. The programs help beautify communities, remove and convert unsightly spaces and buildings.

We the CmPS team of East Orange decided to address the problem of illegal dumping in vacant lots.