Mr. Trash Wheel is a trash interceptor that removes trash from the Jones Falls river as it empties into the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland. It is powered by a water wheel and solar cells, and rakes trash from the harbor onto an onboard conveyor belt which routes it into a dumpster on the vessel. Mr. Trash Wheel was invented by John Kellett in 2008, who launched a pilot vessel at that time. A larger vessel was later developed; it replaced the pilot vessel and was launched in May 2014. The Mr. Trash Wheel vessel is part of the Waterfront Partnership of the City of Baltimore's "Healthy Harbor Initiative".
Mr. Trash Wheel is a moored vessel that removes trash from the mouth of the Jones Falls stream at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Rubbish from the streets of Baltimore flushes into storm drains that empty into Jones Falls. The floating rubbish is then carried by the river to its outlet into the Inner Harbor, where it is captured by Mr. Trash Wheel. The water wheel can be controlled remotely on the Internet. Mr. Trash Wheel was constructed using $720,000 of public and private funding.
Mr. Trash Wheel was invented by John Kellett, who developed the idea when observing trash in the harbor while passing Pier 6 on his walk to work. A pilot trash wheel was built and launched in the harbor by Kellett in 2008. Kellett then built a larger machine, launched in May 2014, which was able to pick up larger matter and held two dumpsters onboard. The use of two dumpsters allows the vessel to operate longer without having to go back to shore to empty the single dumpster that was used on the initial pilot vessel.
On April 20, 2015, after the first significant rain storm of the season, Mr. Trash Wheel removed 19 tons of garbage from Baltimore's waterfront on that one day. The previous record for debris removal occurred on May 16, 2014, when the machine removed 11 tons. At the end of the third quarter in 2016 (September 30), it was noted that Mr. Trash Wheel had collected over 1000000lb of trash since its inception.[1]
Mr. Trash Wheel is part of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore's "Healthy Harbor Initiative", which was started with a goal to clean up the harbor to the point of making it swimmable by the year 2020. In 2015, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore began fundraising efforts to construct a second water wheel like Mr. Trash Wheel for use "off the Boston Street Pier Park" at the Harris Creek outfall in Canton, Baltimore. This second trash wheel has been given the name "Professor Trash Wheel". As of 2023, the trash wheel family had collected 2,362 tons of trash.[2]
Adam Lindquist, Vice President of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and leader of the Healthy Harbor Initiative, approached What Works Studio, a marketing agency based in Baltimore and San Diego, to leverage the popularity of a video of the device in 2015. What Works Studio creative strategist Justin Allen was immediately struck with the organic look of the device and suggested personifying it with googly eyes and giving it a name. Several names were suggested by the What Works Studio staff, but Mr. Trash Wheel is the one that stuck. What Works Studio suggested using Twitter as the primary channel for communication, and Mr. Trash Wheel started gaining a following under the management of multiple What Works Studio staff. At this point, the googly eyes existed only on images of the trash wheel. The first set of physical eyes, handmade by Lindquist in his spare time, were removed after a brief period. In March 2016, Key Tech, a Baltimore-based technology solutions company, donated a more robust pair of permanent eyes.[3]
In 2023, a 15-minute documentary was created by the Rivers are Life media company to educate viewers about Mr. Trash Wheel and the Baltimore water wheel family.[4]
The Trash Wheel Fan Fest is a yearly festival held to celebrate Mr. Trash Wheel, generating unique works of fan art. [5]
Several additional trash wheels have been produced since the success of the original. Four of them in the Baltimore Harbor[6] and there are plans for one on the West Coast and one in Central America. Working with Kellett, Panamanian officials were able to secure a grant to place a trash wheel in Panama City.[7]
Like Mr. Trash Wheel, the others deployed so far have also been anthropomorphized: