FORT WORTH — Keep the Trinity River clean: that’s the goal for Fort Worth leaders who have plans to bring a water-powered trash interceptor to the city by this time next year. 

The Pedestrian Bridge area of the Trinity River in Fort Worth is surrounded by hike and bike trails, making it a beautiful place to be outdoors. But if you look a little closer down by the water, you’ll see there’s quite a trash problem. Fort Worth resident and self-proclaimed eco-junkie Kathyrn Hansen said the amount of trash in the river is unacceptable. 

"I just think that anybody who cares about their city, should care about this. I think it's a quality of life issue,” Hansen said. "You know, we want to live in a clean place that looks nice and that we can be proud of. And proud when people come in, tourists come in, visitors come in, and we take them out along the river for a bike ride or a walk, we don't want to have all this trash. I mean that's just really embarrassing.” 

Hansen said since COVID-19 started, the amount of trash has increased. She believes it’s coming from the picnic areas of Trinity Park, where maybe the trash cans have been overflowing and the winds have blown debris into the river. 

"Styrofoam containers have become a huge problem especially during COVID. When people get takeout, they have the styrofoam containers and yeah, I think we just need to make people more aware of using less of these disposable items that end up in our river,” Hansen said. "There's a gallon milk jug. There are shoes. Mostly plastic bottles, which are in my opinion are the bane of our society." 

Hansen had planned to alert the city to the issue. Little did she know, they’re way ahead of her. 

“Very pleasantly surprised,” Hansen said. "There's a trash wheel in the works for Fort Worth. So I'm not going to have to be as much of a nag, I guess, to the city. But now I can just concentrate on trying to volunteer to do what I can to help get the word out and promote the trash wheel.” 

The wheel uses booms to funnel trash into its mouth and a conveyor belt lifts the debris out of the water into a dumpster. In 2014, Baltimore’s "Mr. Trash Wheel” was installed at the Inner Harbor, along with giant cartoon eyes, anthropomorphizing him to the point where he’s almost like a mascot. He eats up to 50,000 pounds of solid waste per day, mainly single use plastics and styrofoam, but he’s also taken in a guitar and a beer keg before. Baltimore currently has three trash wheels and another on the way. 

“[Mr. Trash Wheel] has become really a city mascot. There are beers named after him, there's a trash wheel festival. He sells merchandise, like ugly Christmas sweaters and I thought wow, this is something we could do in Fort Worth,” Hansen said. "There are actually a lot of people in Fort Worth who are very very keen for this to happen and very interested in keeping the city clean." 

Hansen said the merchandising and fundraising opportunities would be endless if the city chooses to turn the trash wheel into more of a cartoon character. She’s already created a Facebook page dedicated to keeping up with the trash wheel progress. 

"I think that anthropomorphizing the trash wheel like with the eyes, you know, I think that creates a really great educational opportunity for kids. I think they can identify with it more. And the more we can get to people when they're young and get them in the habit of, you know, not using plastic bags, not using straws, not using styrofoam, I think that it's easier for people to sort of get behind the idea of this “mascot” really,” she said. 

The wheel was invented and constructed by Clearwater Mills, LLC and, along with the proposed construction of the Fort Worth trash wheel next fall, the company is working on one in Oakland, Calif. and one in Panama. 

“Once we get one trash wheel put in, I'm going to try to get involved and maybe we can raise some funds and do what we can to get more trash wheels,” Hansen said. “This is going to be my project, is doing whatever I can to clean up the river and trying to get, you know, more trash wheels. The more trash wheels, the better.”

One waterwheel costs $100,000 and the initiative Keep Fort Worth Beautiful is able to discuss levels of donations and taxable donations if you’d like to contribute. For more information contact the group at 817-392-1234 or KFWB@FortWorthTexas.gov or visit its website.