News & Media
Rivers are Life, imagined by BeAlive, aims to bring you inspirational, ecosystem-saving stories from River Heroes all around the globe. Through films, podcasts, events, ecommerce, and engagement with the global river protection community, we take an inside look at how individuals and organizations are healing our vital rivers.
Our “Public Relations Team” at PROFILES is here to meet all of your media and press needs.
Please send all requests to:
Rida Dhanani
Account Executive - Profiles PR
Email: rida@profilespr.com
Phone: 703-309-9497
The Promise of Mr. Trash Wheel
A prototype was installed in 2008. By 2014, Kellett’s invention was reborn as Mr. Trash Wheel—a fifty-foot-long machine, weighing nearly a hundred thousand pounds, that resembles a friendly mollusk, with giant, googly eyes and its own Twitter account.
Ocean Cleanup’s New Plastic-Catcher … Kinda Already Exists?
It's a great idea that, well, has been done before: interceptors (lowercase), as their known, have been operating for several years in Baltimore. That’d be Mr. Trash Wheel, an interceptor with giant googly eyes in Baltimore Harbor that gobbles up 200 tons of trash a year, and its sibling Professor Trash Wheel. (If you’re not following Mr. Trash Wheel on Instagram, you’re missing out.)
Mr. Trash Wheel turns 5; celebrates with a beer
BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s oldest googly-eyed garbage eater celebrated his fifth birthday with a beer last weekend. Mr. Trash Wheel, the floating trash collector that sits adjacent to Pier VI and collects all the junk that flushes out through the Jones Falls River, turned 5 years old in May. The device’s “parent” organization, the Waterfront Partnership, held a celebration at Peabody Heights Brewing in Waverly to celebrate the big day and the growth of the Trash Wheel family.
Meet Mr. Trash Wheel: Baltimore Harbor's Googly Eyed Garbage Gobbler
Maryland lawmakers last month became the first in the country to approve a statewide ban on Styrofoam food containers.
And a local Baltimore celebrity may have had a little something to do with the new policy.
Mr. Trash Wheel — and his cousins Professor Trash Wheel and Captain Trash Wheel — have scooped up a million Styrofoam containers since the first one was installed on a tributary leading to the Baltimore Harbor in 2014.
Trash Wheel Family Reaches Styrofoam Container Collection Milestone
Waterfront Partnership’s Healthy Harbor Initiative announced the trash wheel family—Mr. Trash Wheel, Professor Trash Wheel and Captain Trash Wheel—has collected more than 1,000,000 Styrofoam containers since the first wheel launched in 2014.
This milestone comes around the same time that a Styrofoam ban bill passed the House and Senate. A final version of the bill will now need to be signed by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to make the statewide ban official.
Reinventing The Wheel - Baltimore’s trash wheels are more than just goofy, googly-eyed gimmicks.
Baltimore was making a bad impression. John Kellett was sure of that. Walking to his job as the director of the Baltimore Maritime Museum, his path took him across the footbridge connecting Harbor East and Pier Six. And most days, the Jones Falls flowing underneath looked like a conveyor belt of trash, full of debris sucked downstream from the river’s 40-square-mile watershed.
Mr. Trash Wheel cleans up Baltimore Harbor with a dash of humor
Mr. Trash Wheel is a googly-eyed, trash-skimming water wheel installed at the bottom of Jones Falls watershed, which empties into the Baltimore Harbor.
The Healthy Harbor Initiative for the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, which has given the harbor a failing water quality grade every year since 2012, wants to make these waters swimmable by 2020.
Mr. Trash Wheel Immortalized in Song as Baltimore Harbor’s Hero
Mr. Trash Wheel is a water-driven trash-interceptor and collection machine that was installed four years ago at the mouth of the Jones Falls, where it empties into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
It was invented by Baltimore entrepreneur John Kellett and has succeeded in collecting more than 1.5 million pounds of garbage over the years. It has also collected a large social media following, with 30,000 followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Mr. Trash Wheel — Baltimore's Googly-Eyed Trash Collector
You’ve probably seen it—a barge-like vessel with a slowly moving steel wheel hitched to its side, and a curved white PVC-fabric cover lined with solar panels arched across its top. And, last but certainly not least, it’s hard to miss the pair of playful, five-foot tall googly eyes on top, which brings the contraption to life.
Most floating debris removed by a trash interceptor in one month
Between 1 and 30 April 2017, Mr. Trash Wheel, operated by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore (USA), removed 57.46 tonnes (63.34 US-tons) of debris from the mouth of the Jones Falls River in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Mr. Trash water wheel removes rubbish from Baltimore river
Mr.Trash has been in use since 2014, removing over 1 million lbs of rubbish from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Some of that rubbish includes 8.9 million cigarette butts and half a million polystyrene containers.
Googly-Eyed Trash Eaters May Clean a Harbor Near You
The rising star of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, known to locals as Mr. Trash Wheel, is a garbage gobbler with its own social media following. Built with $720,000 in public and private funds, the voracious device once filled 12 Dumpsters with trash in the 48 hours after a particularly heavy storm. Since its debut in 2014, it has pulled in more than a million pounds of trash and debris from the Jones Falls River. Expect that number to rise.
Baltimore's 'Mr. Trash Wheel' Has Lost a Giant Googly Eye
Fourteen feet tall and vaguely crustacean in looks, Baltimore’s trash-sifting water wheel won over green-minded locals when first installed in the city’s Inner Harbor in 2014. But when its overseeing organization, Healthy Harbor Initiative, slapped on a temporary pair of giant googly eyes last Halloween, “Mr. Trash Wheel” (as it’s known on Twitter) truly captured hearts and minds. More than 1,500 people petitioned for permanent peepers, based on their ability to make environmentalism more appealing.
Mr. Trash Wheel: Using natural forces to clean Baltimore’s waters
Baltimore, MD has stepped out of the box with a one-of-a-kind model to manage municipal trash, power homes, and educate citizens and cities around the world—all without leaving the Harbor.
A Boat Named 'Mr. Trash Wheel' Is Single-Handedly Cleaning Up Baltimore Harbor
Baltimore Harbor is where the Jones Falls River empties, but it doesn't always empty just water; it also brings with it all the trash and debris from upstream. As you can imagine, the result is pretty unsightly.
Python on the lam is all wrapped up in Baltimore’s Water Wheel
Adam Lindquist wasn’t sure what to make of the handsome, five-foot brown and black snake that Nate Appleby-Kellett found curled Wednesday around the Water Wheel in the Inner Harbor.
“It was a good-sized snake,” Lindquist said. “Nate took one look at it and backed away.”
This Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Clean 50,000 Pounds of Baltimore’s Trash Per Day
A large wheel has been strolling the Baltimore Inner Harbor the past month, doing its best to clean the trash that has littered a city landmark and tourist attraction.
It’s called the Inner Harbor Water Wheel, and though it moves slow, it has the capability to collect 50,000 pounds of trash. The timing for John Kellett’s solar-powered creation is crucial—hands and crab nets simply can’t keep up with the growing amount of wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles, and other debris carried from storm drains into the harbor.
Baltimore's Water Wheel Keeps On Turning, Pulling In Tons Of Trash
Baltimore's Inner Harbor is a city landmark teeming with tourists, restaurants and — until recently — floating trash. Since the water wheel began churning in May, it has removed 40 tons of trash from Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Baltimore wants to make the Inner Harbor clean enough for swimming by 2020.
Baltimore’s Solar-Powered Water Wheel Can Devour 50,000 Pounds of Harbor Trash Every Day
“I was tired of always hearing tourists say ‘ugh, this harbor’s disgusting’,” says Water Wheel co-founder John Kellett. “I thought, there’s got to be a better way than collecting trash on our front doorstep.” After a successful prototype and securing the support of the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore, the world’s first Water Wheel was constructed in just seven months with a crew of less than four men.
Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and promoting the waterfront district, parks, and public spaces. We create welcoming programs, events, and recreational experiences while working toward a healthy harbor. We are committed to fostering connections among diverse communities to ensure equitable access to our blue and green space
Keep Up On The Weekly Buzz
Whether you live a few steps from the waterfront or take the occasional trip to visit, Harbor Beat is your source for local news, community events, historical insights, food & wine recommendations, and district updates.