We give a shit: The Prospect Park Litter Mob

Photos by Marie Viljoen

Empty beer and liquor bottles. Used condoms and their wrappers. Drained containers of lube. Plastic bags. Discarded dildos. Crushed cigarette boxes. A gold belt. A T-shirt. Some paper towels. Gum wrappers. Just a few of the things you’ll find scattered among the leaves and trees of Prospect Park.

It’s not usually out in the open, of course. This isn’t the type of stuff you’d see on the Great Lawn, or by the Picnic House. But spend some time hiking through the woods, and you’ll spot them. Over broken fences. Down by the lake. In the seemingly untouched areas of the forest.  One man’s treasure is a place for another man’s trash.

And that’s where The Prospect Park Litter Mob comes in.

Meeting every other Tuesday at 9am on the corner of East Drive and Center Drive, the Mob rummages through the Park, collecting everything left behind by the cruisers and boozers of the area. They’ve done 11 Litter Mobs since Mary. On the last one they collected 6 bags of trash. That’s a lotta' used condom wrappers!

The Litter Mob started back in 2010, when Marie Viljoen was photographing various flowers and mushrooms in Prospect Park. Noticing all the trash left behind, Viljoen started posting pictures online about it, and commissioned the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation for help. She then took the matter into her own hands by forming the Litter Mob with a few friends. To this day, Viljoen says she’s still never heard back from them – though the Prospect Park Alliance has contacted them to help. Once.

It’s sad that Viljoen and company haven’t found the support they need, but I’m glad they’re continuing the crusade. Especially because they’re not just picking up trash. They also spend a fair amount of time reclaiming paths, protecting old trees and planting perennials. Their work has made Prospect Park a cleaner, safer space for all of us.

So what can we do to help? Well for one, let’s stop throwing our shit all over the Park. If you're like me and you want to do more, then volunteer to help on one of the Mob’s next outings. In the least, I urge you to search through the archives of the Mob’s clean-ups. There’s a ton more pictures of what they find like the one above that will just blow your mind. Hopefully, we can all start treating Prospect Park with respect so the Mob won’t have to do this much longer.