City of Worcester, MA

WORCESTER, Mass. – The City of Worcester announced Friday a relaunch and expansion of its Keep Worcester Clean (KWC) Program. Following a commitment from City Manager Eric D. Batista to begin a month-long all-hands-on-deck effort to clean up the city throughout August, the refreshed KWC initiative includes a revamped page on the municipal website, newly highlighted initiatives including the Clean Streets Collective (CSC), resumption of recurring reports to City Council, and amplifying the ongoing interdepartmental collaboration that makes the campaign possible.

“With the relaunch of Keep Worcester Clean we are reaffirming the municipality’s commitment to cleanliness and ensuring all of our trash, recycling, and beautification programs and initiatives are under the same umbrella,” City Manager Eric D. Batista said. “Keeping a city our size clean is no easy feat, but by redoubling our efforts, enhancing partnerships, and providing the public with a central place to go for information to do their part, we can make it achievable.”

The updated KWC web page serves as a portal to all the information residents need to know about municipal programs and how to get involved without having to navigate to different department pages directly.

For example, there had previously not been a centralized means for residents or community groups to request municipal assistance with their own organized cleanup events. On the updated KWC web page, they can now request trash pickup following a cleanup event and even request resources like trash bags and gloves from the Department of Parks, Recreation, & Cemetery for cleanup events in municipal parks.

Similarly, the page includes a spotlight on the CSC, which is an initiative meant to empower residents and community groups to organize voluntary litter cleanups with free green trash bags provided by the municipality and collected during trash pickup. While the CSC is not a new program, to date it has been piloted with a small number of neighborhood partnerships by the Department of Sustainability & Resilience (DSR) and Quality of Life Team. Now, community groups can actively sign up to participate in the initiative.

The page also provides information on how members of the public can adopt a traffic island, join a City Manager’s Clean Team event, recycle textiles via Helpsy, and find out when their trash is scheduled to be picked up, among other resources. 

The Department of Public Works (DPW) first launched the KWC Program alongside the then-Heath and Code Departments as far back as 2002 to better coordinate existing municipal services like street sweeping; cleaning sidewalks, medians, and beneath bridges; trash and litter collection; and enforcement of existing anti-litter ordinances. 

Over the years, KWC has involved several different initiatives to clean up the city. For example, in 2006, it included such programs as Streetscape, Operation Clean City, Grimewatch, and the Graffiti Task Force. 

While the program has shifted over the years, it has always existed as an effort to encourage departmental collaboration and community engagement on the municipality’s beautification programs and initiatives. 

KWC involves all municipal departments but will be primarily led by DPW; DSR; the Department of Parks, Recreation, & Cemetery; the Inspectional Services Department; and the Quality of Life Team. 

The program has both short and long-term goals from individual cleanups to the installation of dual-stream trash and recycling bins across the city to the adoption of the Zero Waste Master Plan that will inform policy. The City Manager’s Office and DPW, with the support of other departments, will provide updates on those goals to the City Council on a quarterly basis, starting with the Aug. 19, 2025 meeting.