IMPACT LANCASTER Leadership Challenge
Community Challenge
Litter is a growing problem in Lancaster City and beyond. Recently, online community groups like the
Chestnut Hill Neighbors Facebook Group and Lancaster Unity have discussed the need for more
community involvement in cleaning up litter from sidewalks, streets, and parks. While the Lancaster City
Alliance Bike Squad & Clean Team and committed residents have done their best in keeping up with
litter, it is an ongoing problem that appears to be worsening. Litter impacts quality of life, health, and
safety for residents. It also decreases the economic value of both residential and commercial property
and impacts local business prosperity. Ultimately, we need to increase awareness, change attitudes and
behavior, and engage the community in addressing and preventing this issue.
Community Solution
We envision raising awareness and engaging the community through a creative and mobile public art
project that would bring visibility to littering and encourage responsible recycling and trash disposal.
We propose designing and creating mobile litter receptacles called ‘Trash Dragons.’ Each ‘Trash Dragon’ would consist of a bicycle, a series of containers to hold litter, and a creative apparatus resembling a dragon sculpture. See rough sketch below:
These kinetic/functional sculptures would serve as a Litter-Busting community engagement tool to increase awareness and education related to littering, recycling, and trash disposal while at the same time collecting litter. In a similar initiative, Pennsylvania College of Art & Design (PCAD) recently partnered with LCSWMA,
SDOL, and others to develop the Litter Letter Project public art project to raise local awareness of litter:
http://engage.pcad.edu/blog/pcad-trash-talking.
This project would expand on that idea by “taking the show on the road” and bringing a mobile public
art installation to neighborhoods around the city. Local artists would partner with The Common Wheel
and others to transform bicycles to tow a series of barrels and recycle bins. These mobile sculptures
could be driven alongside clean-up teams to encourage members of the neighborhoods to interact and
get involved. They also serve as receptacles to help with the clean-up itself. Perhaps, it will even help
prevent future littering by fostering a sense of community pride and responsibility. We hope their
unique design will especially appeal to children and could lead to clean-up/litter-busting partnerships
with local schools. While our initial focus would be Lancaster City, if the model is successful, it could be
brought to other areas of Lancaster County.
Community Progress:
Team ImpactTrashDragon held several planning meetings in March and April to discuss project.
We created a website to profile our project and to compile our photos. Photos posted to
Instagram that are tagged with #ImpactTrashDragon are automatically posted to the webpage:
http://rjfisher.github.io/Trash-Dragons/
Several team members participated in a Community Litter Clean-up on April 3rd to learn more
about the extent of litter in Lancaster.
The team collaborated with some Science teachers at School District of Lancaster to incorporate
lessons about litter and the environment in their lessons. In addition, students were asked to
provide feedback about how they feel about the litter in their community. Many were
frustrated, but others were sadly resigned as they felt litter was ever-present in their
neighborhoods. Students indicated a need for additional trash cans and advocated for
consequences for littering.
The team connected with Barbara Baker, Coordinator for Keep Lancaster County Beautiful &
County Recycling Coordinator with LCSWMA. She was supportive of project and interested in
connecting the completed Trash Dragon with community clean-up initiatives.
The team connected with Timothy Breneisen, Manager of the Bureau of Solid Waste & Recycling
for the City of Lancaster. He was supportive of project and interested in connecting the
completed Trash Dragon with community clean-up initiatives. He also provided a large green
recycling bin to be used in construction of the mobile litter collector.
The team recruited Salina Almanzar, a local artist willing to assist in the design and sculptural
elements of the project. She offered her services pro-bono.
Artist’s Biography: Salina Almanzar received her Bachelor of Arts at Franklin and Marshall
College in 2013. There she studied English Literature and Studio Art with a focus in Figurative
Arts. Salina is heavily influenced by her family’s Latin background and the overwhelming
strength of the women in her family. She has been invited to speak as an experimental
contemporary figurative sculptor and has assisted in research, curatorial practice and exhibition
design at the Demuth Museum of Lancaster County. Salina has been a part of Lancaster’s
progressive community of artists exhibiting alongside local artists as well as holding solo
exhibitions at several Lancaster City venues.
The team decided to emphasis the theme ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ in the design of the Trash
Dragon by incorporating refuse, recycled, and repurposed materials.
The team coordinated a materials drive to collect various items for the sculpture and secured
the following materials:
o Aluminum cans and tabs
o Plastic bottles and caps
o Plastic grocery bags
o Zipties/Nylon string
o Wire/Wire Mesh
o Scrap Adhesive Vinyl
o 2 Blue 55 gallon drums
o 1 Large recycling bin
The team held a Prototyping Session to explore the feasibility of different materials and begin
the base armature for the dragon sculpture.
The team secured a bicycle from Common Wheel to use in the creation of the mobile Trash
Dragon prototype. The bicycle is an extra-long/stable bike designed to pull up to 200lbs.
Common Wheel is assisting in adjusting the bike for use in the mobile sculpture project.
Synopsis & Next Steps:
The team worked well together and utilized the strengths of each team member to contribute
to the overall project progress.
It took more than the 2 months allotted to complete the project in its entirety, but we are proud
of the progress made so far and are committed to seeing our vision come to life.
The team plans to continue to meet and work together to complete the design of the mobile
Trash Dragon sculpture.
The team plans to recruit groups of school kids to provide additional input on the design and
help test and improve the prototype.
Once the sculpture is complete, we plan to collaborate with Keep Lancaster County Beautiful
and the City of Lancaster to deploy it for community clean-up projects.
If the team receives an award from Impact Lancaster, we would invest the money into the
mobile sculpture towards purchase of materials, a trike bike, or bike trailer/cart.
The team is passionate about improving our community and combatting community litter. We
seek to increase awareness, change attitudes and behavior, and engage the community in
addressing and preventing this issue.
Leadership Challenge Team Members
Janeen Maxwell, Director of the Nonprofit Resource Network at Millersville University
Natalie A. Lascek, Director of Admissions Marketing & Recruitment, PA College of Art & Design
Jason Ingargiola from The Common Wheel ([email protected])
Emily Landis, Executive Director of the Lancaster Science Factory ([email protected]) Marisa Rosemellia, Science Teacher at Reynolds Middle School, School District of Lancaster
([email protected]) Rob Fisher, Senior Programmer at geographIT, a division of EBA Engineering, Inc.
TEAM IMPACT TRASH DRAGON - #IMPACTLANCASTER SAMPLE POSTS
