Ross man does his part to remove litter from Ohio River
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There are times when Tommy Ross feels like his actions are futile, perhaps even Sisyphean.
While Ross is not condemned to eternally roll a boulder up a hill only to see it tumble back down, the task he’s set himself to can seem similar in its hopelessness.
Ross, 49, regularly takes his kayak onto the Ohio River to collect trash in an effort to combat the issue of litter in Pittsburgh, particularly along the city’s waterways.
“Some days I’m out there and it really does get to you,” Ross said. “I’m like, ‘Wow. This is overwhelming and this is just a hamster-in-a-wheel type thing. When is this going to end? I could sit here and do this all day every day and it seems like it would never end.’”
The Shaler native, who now splits time between Ross Township and Clearwater, Fla., actively documents his cleanup missions on X, formerly known as Twitter, in an attempt to highlight Pittsburgh’s littler issues to anyone who will take notice – fellow citizens, visitors to town and elected officials alike.
“What I’ve found with my water-based clean-ups is that the litter problems are actually much worse that I think people understand,” Ross said. “We all see litter on the street when we walk around town. Obviously, it looks horrible, but I was shocked at the amount of litter that’s actually in our rivers.”
Since he began hitting the water in 2022, Ross has collected more than 1,000 trash bags full of litter that he’s managed to remove, as well as more than 4,000 plastic water bottles, the No. 1 item he comes across.
In addition to the predictable tsunami of plastic waste, some of the items Ross has found in Pittsburgh’s rivers border on the exotic, such as a bowling ball and a turtle-shaped pool.
“There’s just all types of stuff,” Ross said. “Anything you can imagine, you see. Big and small you see, but the item I see the most are those plastic drink bottles, for sure. They’re just everywhere – water bottles, Gatorade bottles, coke bottles. All that.”
Ross volunteers with local environmental nonprofits Friends of the Riverfront and Allegheny Cleanways.
In his capacity as a “Trail Steward” with Friends of the Riverfront, Ross helps to keep a section of the Three Rivers Water Trail trash-free.
His area of responsibility is the Westhall Street Launch on the Ohio River shore, across from the northeast tip of Brunot Island.
“Volunteers are able to provide a critical resource in addressing litter,” said Friends of the Riverfront executive director Kelsey Ripper. “Having so many like-minded people, as well, that do care about this issue and who are willing to give up their time, volunteer – that inspires me and keeps me motivated.”
Ross has found a vocal ally in historian and author Virginia Montanez in his quest to amplify the reality of Pittsburgh’s litter predicament.
Montanez has joined Ross on several river kayaking trips. While long aware and upset over the litter buildup she saw around Pittsburgh, seeing the pollution of the city’s waterways firsthand came as a shock.
Like Ross, Montanez uses her platform on X, which boasts more than 24,000 followers, to bring attention to the matter and encourage city and county officials to take action.
“All I am trying to do is be loud enough and angry enough that other people will get loud and angry and maybe somebody will start paying attention,” Montanez said.
At the start of August, Ross and Montanez scoffed at an article by Yahoo! Finance that listed Pittsburgh as the No. 23 cleanest city in the United States.
Particularly infuriating to them both was the City of Pittsburgh’s official X account posting the story.
Citing data from the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, the article asserted that 89% of Pittsburgh households reported seeing no trash or junk half a block away from their residents.
“It was just a joke,” Montanez said. “They should have taken it down and apologized. They got so much pushback from people who were like, ‘Are you crazy? We can see. We know how bad it is here.’”
The trash issue in Pittsburgh, from littering to illegal dumping as well as the distinction between waste found on the ground vs. in the rivers, is a complex one.
The same could be said of enacting solutions on a local, statewide and national level.
While Ross can appreciate that the problem at hand is far bigger than him, he won’t shy away from being part of the fix.
“I try to show people images so that they see and are shocked, maybe, about the damage that’s there,” Ross said. “I’m hoping, as I continue on with this, that people are getting a little bit wide-eyed, because I was when I saw it. I hope more and more people see that and get a little bit frustrated with it and voice those opinions to politicians – people that can make those changes.”