Pittsburgh Garbage Olympics Celebrates 10 Years

Published on September 22, 2026

Department of Public Works - City Seal

Pittsburgh Garbage Olympics Celebrates 10 Years, Over 10,000 Bags of Garbage Collected

Pittsburgh, PA – This past Saturday, the Pittsburgh Garbage Olympics celebrated its 10th annual event, bringing together 50 of the city’s 90 neighborhoods for a friendly competition to pick up garbage and litter. With over 5,000 volunteers collecting over 10,000 bags of trash, 3,700 tires, 1,600 televisions and 3,000 bulk items over the past decade, the whole city wins the Garbage Olympics.

The community-building event encourages residents to team up with their neighbors to compete against other neighborhoods while also beautifying their community. Prizes are awarded each year for most trash collected, largest team, strangest item found and dirtiest volunteer. Litter found throughout the neighborhoods includes garbage and debris, tires, televisions and bulk items that are dumped in neighborhoods.

“The Garbage Olympics is Pittsburgh at its best – bringing neighbors together every year to show their neighborhood pride and compete to see who can redd up the best,” said Mayor Corey O’Connor. “Partnership and community matter in the vibrancy of our neighborhoods. Thank you to the volunteers who have organized this event for 10 years and to the hundreds of Pittsburghers who competed this year. It’s amazing to see the impact of these volunteers in just a couple of hours - every one of them deserves the gold medal.”

The 2026 Garbage Olympics were held on Saturday, September 19, 2026 with 709 volunteers across 50 neighborhoods that collected a total of 1,290 bags of trash, 744 tires, 244 televisions and 548 bulk items. This year’s winners included:

  • Dirtiest Volunteer: Brookline
  • Strangest Item Found: Sheraden with chimpanzee bookends
  • Most Volunteers: South Side Flats with 110 volunteers
  • Most trash collected: Allentown with 29 bags of garbage, 346 tires, 37 televisions and 29 bulk items

The annual event brings together a host of partners, including the Department of Public Works, who collect all of the garbage and refuse from each neighborhood’s team, City of Pittsburgh Clean Pittsburgh Commission and more. News and information for the annual event can be found here on the Pittsburgh Garbage Olympics website.

Brighton Heights

man taking selfie with several people behind him with orange vests and holding equipment for litter pickup

Brookline

three people standing near two piles of stacked tires and garbage bags with litter in them

Carrick

a person walking down steps holding a full garbage bag with two other litter collectors and a white pickup truck with garbage bags in the back

East Hills

a group of 4 people on the side of the road with litter collecting equipment and tires and garbage bags stacked next to them

Greenfield

a group of three adults with one holding a toddler standing in front of a stack of garbage bags filled with litter

Larimer

A selfie of a group of ten volunteers with piles of tires stacked behind them

A group of 5 teenage volunteers with two of them holding filled garbage bags of litter with their bucket and grabbers in front of the group

Shadyside

A group of 13 volunteers standing behind piles of garbage bags and discarded furniture

Sheraden

A group of five volunteers wearing grey shirts with Sheraden Neighbors on the front of the shirts in green

 

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Molly Onufer
Press Secretary
molly.onufer@pittsburghpa.gov

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