INDIANAPOLIS — Beneath the melting snow in Marion County, litter has been piling up, but crews are stepping in to clean it before we get to spring.
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Downtown Indy Alliance runs the Clean Team, just one crew tackling the litter problem.
"You'll see them in green all day," said Fred Carr, Director of Operations for Downtown Indy Alliance.
Workers in their green Clean Team jackets, like Josue Castillo, make rounds daily in Downtown Indy.
"I like it because it keeps me busy," Castillo explained as he walked around Monument Circle with a bucket and trash grabber in hand. "I really like Indianapolis."
"They're like the unsung heroes out here," said Carr. "They're the spirits of Downtown that pretty much make our events nice."
The Clean Team is in charge of clearing roads, sidewalks, and alleys. They also clean graffiti and remove stickers from signs.
"If you see a jacket that says 'Clean Team' on it, don't be afraid to sit there and say 'Hello, thank you,' and just give them an appreciation of the day," encouraged Carr.
The Clean Team has been working hard to ensure the litter after the snow melt is cleaned, and they're also working to ensure the city is in tip-top shape for hosting part of the Men's NCAA tournament this spring.
Downtown Indy is not the only area where litter is being picked up to get ready for spring.
In the rest of Marion County, litter pickup is coordinated by Indy DPW. DPW workers already have a lot of projects on their hands, especially during winter.
"The same ones that plow the snow are the same ones that fill the potholes. They're the same ones that do the vegetation," explained David Bride, an administrator with Indy DPW. "They also do the storms."
Because of this, Indy DPW partners with the Keys2Work program. Keys2Work employees focus on litter pickup, allowing DPW employees to focus on their other tasks.
This nonprofit finds jobs for those who are facing employment obstacles.
"Usually whenever we have a major vegetation removal, we have Keys2Work that comes behind, because we find a lot of litter after we've cleared a lot of brush locations," said Bride.
Teams of workers from Keys2Work are out every day across Marion County, but they are in a different location each day.
Some areas have needed more work than others with the backlog of litter following the snow melt.
"It gets hard sometimes when you're cleaning up the same spot over and over again," said Felicia Stokes, a supervisor with Keys2Work. "But that's what we get paid to do. The crew I got, we just get out and do it. We have fun while we're doing it."
Stokes is proud of the difference she and her team make across the city.
"When we come out here, and we clean it, it shows that we are making a difference," Stokes shared. "It may not look like we're doing much, but we're doing it."
The daily work adds up over the course of the year.
"About 10,000 55-gallon bags of trash was removed," said Bride of the bags of trash picked up by Keys2Work workers in 2025. "You can see the significance of how important it is to have a program like this."
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