In 2020, Preston Ross III decided to start picking up litter — a hobby borne from pandemic isolation and the increasing piles of trash he encountered in his drives through the Raleigh area as an insurance adjuster. He couldn’t find an organization to volunteer with, so he invited some friends and started an online meetup group.
The first event had two people, himself and his then-wife. A month later, six people volunteered, then 13, then 23. Six years later, The Great Raleigh Cleanup now counts 3,000 volunteers who have plucked garbage from along roadways, streams, and anyplace else it collects. Events now take place several weekends a month in Raleigh and surrounding areas, including Cary, Garner, and Wendell.
First-time volunteer Kim Parsons picks up trash along Tryon Road in Raleigh.
“I’ve kind of always considered myself someone who cares about the environment and try to practice environmental stewardship as much as I can. And I just kind of thought, ‘What’s something that I can do?’” says Preston. “It was supposed to be a once-a-month hobby; now it’s a career.”
Corporate cleanup events generated the organization’s first major donations. In 2023, The Cleanup launched its Workforce program, which pays unhoused and formerly incarcerated workers to pick up trash. Funded primarily through a grant from the City of Raleigh, the program has employed nearly 100 people. The addition also allowed Preston to focus full time on his efforts with The Great Raleigh Cleanup.
Zack Owens tackles discarded trash at a former encampment off Tryon Road. Cleanup events typically draw between 20 and 40 volunteers.
In April, the group held its first Earth Yay!, an Earth Day celebration at Coastal Credit Union Music Park that drew more than 100 people for a cleanup, yoga, DJ, and local vendors.
Nearly 3,000 volunteers, including Nathanial Adams, have removed garbage from roadsides, streams, and public places through The Great Raleigh Cleanup meetups.
“No sooner than that event was over, we started planning for the next one,” Preston says. “I think there’s enough room for us to step in and do something that’s more in our culture than other Earth Day events in the area. We want to provide education and also get the word out about who we are and what we do.”
Preston credits the group’s early growth to the pandemic as well as the dearth of other organizations devoted to picking up litter.
“We gave folks a safe place to be outside, and we weren’t in a saturated market,” he says.
These days, most volunteer events draw 20 to 40 people to sites around Raleigh and beyond several weekends a month. In all, the group estimates it has picked up more than 400,000 pounds of trash.
Volunteers have ranged from a 4-year-old to people in their 80s, from all walks of life.
“I tell people when you come, I don’t care how you pray, or how you vote, or what you look like,” Preston says. “We get a broad spectrum of folks who want to come out and be of service.”
In time, the volunteer program was eclipsed in impact by the Workforce program, which Preston was encouraged to start by his friend Maggie Kane, who founded and runs A Place at the Table, a pay-what-you-can restaurant in downtown Raleigh.
Meetups are held multiple times a month in Raleigh and the surrounding communities. The Great Raleigh Cleanup welcomes volunteers of all ages.
Many of the volunteers at A Place at the Table lack housing, and Preston thought some of them might be willing to take part in cleanups. Maggie agreed and helped get the program running. Workers are paid $20 an hour for 4-hour shifts that are available three to five days a week.
The program created a huge boost in the amount of trash collected, but Preston says it also expanded the organization’s impact in new ways, providing an important financial boost to its participants.
There is never a shortage of buckets and litter pickers at a cleanup meetup.
“Initially, we were just picking up more litter, but I quickly started to realize that we were actually having an impact on people’s lives, which I had never set out to do,” he says.
The Great Raleigh Cleanup continues to expand. Preston says he’ll soon hire a community engagement coordinator — the group’s first full-time employee other than himself — and hopes to open another part-time position to head education efforts. The group also partners with local venues such as Red Hat Amphitheater and NC State University football to collect cans and other recyclables and promote recycling at events.
Preston also hopes to pursue more grants, allowing the group’s impact to grow even further. Without a home base other than a couple of trucks, he says, its budget goes straight back to the community.
“The more money we have, the more impact we make,” he says. “It doesn’t sit on the shelf. It goes right back into the work.”
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