A small City partnership yields big returns for people experiencing homelessness

In certain areas of Portland, you might have a chance to see Ground Score Association's GLITTER teams in action. They wear blue vests, travel on foot, by wheelchair, scooter, and e-bike. They're on a mission to create a cleaner community and to help people experiencing homelessness have a cleaner living environment by providing tent-side waste removal service.

Ground Score's radically inclusive, peer led GLITTER trash collection program is renowned among a global collective of waste pickers and has garnered attention from international groups like the UN's Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, yet the group isn't well known locally. Staff within the City of Portland's Impact Reduction Program, who've helped facilitate and secure city funding for the program, have long recognized its value, and recent data they've collected now puts hard numbers on the many ways this program benefits the community.

Ground Score Associationis a peer-led initiative fiscally sponsored by the nonprofit Trash for Peace. Started in 2019, the organization is part of a global movement to legitimize the important work of waste pickers - canners, scrappers, dumpster divers and recyclers who earn a living by salvaging discarded goods and reusing or reselling them. Ground Score is an affiliate of the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, a global trade union that represents more than 460,000 waste pickers across 34 countries.Globally, the IAWP estimates that there are over 20,000,000 people who earn some or all of their livelihood from waste picking.

Locally, waste picking is a viable source of income, largely, because of Oregon's Bottle Bill. You may have noticed an increase in litter and trash in Portland's public spaces over the last several years, but you probably haven't noticed a lot of returnable containers showing up as part of that trash problem. The state's willingness to place a value on beverage containers results in a win for the environment as people are incentivized to recycle, keeping items off the streets and out of landfills.

The Bottle Bill also has significant economic benefits. Canning is a flexible, accessible work opportunity for people who often have barriers to more formal employment. Ground Score's mission is to collectively organize local people who earn a living through this type of work. They seek to build recognition for the legitimacy and importance of the work, and advocate for more formal work opportunities that help waste pickers have more steady income, better safeguards, supports and benefits.

The GLITTER program was designed to conduct general litter pick up but has always been primarily focused on serving people experiencing homelessness. It uses Impact Reduction Program data about where people are living outside to prioritize waste collection routes, then GLITTER teams work in those locations to provide garbage service to people living outdoors. Currently the program runs about 24 tent-side waste collection routes in Old Town, downtown, the Central Eastside, North Portland, and East Multnomah County.

The partnership capitalizes on work Ground Score participants were already doing (waste picking and collecting), but establishes important, reliable funding. That funding means Ground Score can offer more ad hoc, pick-up work, and also more formal payroll positions. Currently, GLITTER has 63 payroll employees.Payroll positions come with supports like sick pay and guaranteed wages during inclement weather.

• Active substance useamong workers decreased from 39% at the start of employment to 14%

• GLITTER workers reported significant improvements in physical and mental health:

17% improved nutrition

16.5% experienced better mental health

11% gained access to primary care

• Approximately 39.29% of respondents reported a change in their living situation as a result of continued employment with GLITTER. Of those, workers report the following changes:

70% rented a house or apartment

20% moved into a cooperative village (HazelnutGrove or R2D2)

10% rented a room using income

Sustainability Outcomes

The same study also revealed the many ways GLITTER benefits the environment and operates in ways that prioritize sustainability - much more so than most other trash collection services. GLITTER is able to divert 19% of the waste they pick up from landfills and their teams take time to remove micro debris - small but often highly toxic forms of waste that can easily end up in sewer drains and waterways. Since January 2024, GLITTER teams have removed over 9,000 sharps from public spaces and collected 165,031 cigarette butts.

Currently, GLITTER takes textile waste to Hygiene4Allfor washing and redistribution, and non-reusable textiles are sent for rag-making. Furniture, wood, and textile waste is also upcycled through Ground Score Association's new reuse and repair program.