Litterbugs look out! — Akron woman picks up 1 million pieces of trash; expands cleanup efforts to Barberton, Wadsworth

Debbie Miller has fashioned her own trash cart for litter pickup.

Main Street Barberton has regular cleanup mornings second Saturday of each month. 

By EMILY CANNING-DEAN
BGNN staff writer

AKRON  A little over two years ago, Debbie Miller said she rarely noticed trash on the side of the road, but after picking up nearly 1 million pieces of garbage in her own neighborhood and in surrounding communities, the Akron resident is much more aware of its presence.

“There is something so satisfying about looking back at an area where you have just cleaned up and seeing the difference it makes,” she said.

Miller, who is set to pick up her millionth piece of garbage by sometime in late April, blogs about her experience at https://akronwomanpicksuptrash.blogspot.com/.
While she began her journey in Akron, Miller has been spending time in both Barberton and Wadsworth beautifying the communities.

Miller’s journey of removing litter from her community began in February of 2023 when she was walking her dog.

“My dog bent down to sniff a wine bottle that was on the ground and the bottle poked his nose and it started bleeding,” Miller said. “It was the scariest thing I had ever seen. I got him home and got the bleeding to stop and then called the city about all the broken glass and trash that is laying around. The next day I started cleaning up the area around my block and it felt so rewarding and in a month, I had cleaned up 74 streets in my neighborhood.”

As she continued picking up litter, Miller found that using a bucket or trash bag wasn’t very efficient as they can become heavy and hard to drag along so she purchased a dolly, a trash can and some bungee cords and fashioned her own trash cart to streamline the process. She also has a space to collect aluminum cans which she takes to Barberton to recycle.

“I will sometimes get $60 per trip when I take in the cans,” she said. “I use that money to purchase supplies. I think I have handed out maybe 100 trash grabbers to people. I’m happy to work with anyone to help them make their own trash cart.”

Recently, Miller has spent time in Barberton cleaning up Wooster Road and the area around Lake Anna.
She has had conversations with Melanie Black Amato at Main Street Barberton about creating a street leader program where individual volunteers take a street and commit to keeping it cleaned up for a year.

Miller pointed out that with residential streets or streets less traveled, maintaining the trash will likely be easier after an initial cleaning. She said main thoroughfares such as Wooster Road usually have higher concentrations of trash.

“Melanie and I first started talking in October and I told her to give me the dirtiest street to start working on,” Miller said. “The area of Wooster Road from the bridge all the way to Rally’s I picked up over 4,000 pieces of trash and 1,279 pieces of broken glass.”

Recently Miller spent time on the exit ramp of Interstate 76 and state Route 261 where she found a rusty saw blade among the litter.

“So far I have cleaned only one of the ramps at that intersection, but there are four ramps there so I plan to get back to the area again soon and do more work,” she said. “I had people honking at me and telling me ‘good job’ which is always something that feels good.”

Miller said she would like to coordinate with both Barberton and Wadsworth to enlist teams of volunteers to pick up trash and maintain certain streets throughout the communities. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Main Street Barberton or Wadsworth City Hall.