Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud launches campaign to eliminate litter

Krista Komisar is playing with her kids at a park in Dearborn. She says this is a common activity for her family — but often when they get to the park it’s not a pleasant site.

“It’s trashed. People don’t know how to use garbage cans — because there are garbage cans — but people are not putting their trash in them,” says Komisar. “They’re letting kids eat up in the playscapes, there are plates, there are forks, there are knives…and it’s gross.”

Dearborn doesn’t appear to have any more litter issues than comparably sized cities, but residents like Komisar and officials are fed up with the amount of trash that’s accumulating these days.

It’s not just the parks — the city’s two downtown business districts have trash issues, which sometimes leads to rats.

Now the city of Dearborn is making a concerted effort to clean up the trash and solve its litter problem.

Clean Streets

“The ‘Clean Streets Initiative’ is something that [Dearborn] Mayor Hammoud has put together to put a team really focusing on cleaning up the parks and surrounding streets,” says Tim Hawkins, Dearborn’s director of public works and facilities. “With a large amount of downtown district events being put on, it’s really just about making sure that we bring in people to a clean area, really to show off the city.”

The effort is a multi-pronged approach that will bring on teams to pick up trash throughout the city on an ongoing basis. Officials surveyed residents about litter hotspots and is asking them to report new issues moving forward on the city’s website.

Dearborn is seeking new trash cans for its parks to prevent garbage spillover and has even hired a contractor to wash down commercial dumpsters in its business districts a few times a month.

“There’s food, refuse and things around them, which leads to vector issues, rodent issues,” Hawkins explains.

The Downtown Development Authorities are using taxes generated from local businesses to cover the cost of keeping dumpsters and downtown streets clean. The city used American Rescue Plan Act funds to purchase two vacuum trucks for about $350,000 each. The city-wide litter team will cost around $300,000 annually once they start in the fall.

Another component of the initiative is an education campaign.

“We’re going to work at the schools. We’re going to do some things through the library, social media, some campaigns to really try to combat the trash issues through the city of Dearborn,” says Hawkins.

The mayor is fed up

In a recent Facebook video, Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud is seen standing in front of a picnic table at a park with garbage on it. Hammoud is still wearing his gym clothes, apparently heading straight to the park after someone posted on social media about the trash.

“If you’re gonna come, if you’re gonna throw away loaves of bread, trays of food, leave behind your charcoal, spit your seeds all over the floor place — it’s absolutely disrespectful,” the mayor says in the video. “You would not do this in your home. So don’t do this at our parks.”

Wayne County Commissioner Sam Baydoun joins Hammoud in the video to translate the message into Arabic.

“I think the goal is for all of us to feel proud of our city,” Hammoud says on the phone later that day. “That you look around, you don’t see any garbage being blown away by the wind — that when you get up and you go visit a park, you’re not really concerned that it’s going to be a mess of any sort.”

Hammoud is constantly looking for litter when he’s out around town.

“I actually have a garbage picker in my truck and a box of garbage bags,” the mayor shares. “And I would love to just make sure that I can go out and never have to pick it up and use it.”

More from WDET:

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