TOWSON, MD—With participation growing across the county, the annual Team BCPS Clean Green 15 Litter Challenge on June 7, 2023 honored the efforts of hundreds of Baltimore County students, schools, and community volunteers, whose combined anti-litter efforts helped to beautify and keep clean their schools and neighborhoods.

The annual Clean Green 15 competition challenges schools and volunteers to engage in quick, 15-minute local litter clean-up events. As a result of the program’s 422 cleanups since last spring, 30 BCPS schools earned grant awards of between $250 and $2,500 to support school-based environmental projects and STEM resources.

The cleanups, which were held throughout the year by 6,040 students, school staffs, volunteers, and community partners, collected 2,091 bags of litter and removed almost 15,000 pounds of bulk trash before it could wash into waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. Forty-four BCPS schools participated in this year’s challenge, and there were 829 more volunteers participating than last year, a 16 percent increase over 2021-2022.

“Congratulations to all those schools and school supporters in Baltimore County who understand that having a clean and healthy school and community environment is an important part of the educational experience and of being good, responsible citizens,” said BCPS Superintendent Dr. Darryl L. Williams. “Through your participation in Clean Green 15, you demonstrate a commitment to creating a better environment not only for your schools but for your neighbors, your families, and for yourselves – a commitment that we hope each student will carry with him or her throughout their lives.”

At the June 7 celebration at Watershed Public Charter School in Windsor Mill, Debbie Phelps of the Education Foundation of Baltimore County Public Schools led county dignitaries and educators as they cheered administrators, teachers, and staff from the winning schools and helped to kick off a new year of Clean Green competition among county schools.

Watershed School was an appropriate venue for the awards ceremony; in April, the school was named a 2023 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School for its stewardship of the environment. The school’s curriculum puts environmental sustainability and the natural world front and center. Environmental concepts and the Maryland E-Literacy standards are infused throughout lessons and embedded in the curriculum, rather than being used as an enrichment activity.

The countywide Clean Green program – now starting its 10th year – is open to any group, including school-based groups, places of worship, youth groups, civic or community groups, scout troops, sport teams, businesses or other organizations, that wishes to help clean up their community. Groups are asked to report their clean-ups online and designate a school to receive credit toward the grant competition.

Team BCPS Clean Green 15 is a collaboration of the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, the Office of County Executive Johnny Olszewski, BCPS, and The Education Foundation of BCPS.

Team BCPS Clean Green 15 Litter Challenge

Winning Schools – School Year 2022 – 2023