If you see an illegal dumpsite or roadside litter in Northeast Pennsylvania, the sight is probably enough to make you want to scream, or cry.
Discarded vehicle tires. Construction debris. Fast food bags. Plastic drinks. Aluminum cans. Did we mention that these are mostly recyclable products? Old mattresses and other household junk. Ugh!
Getting rid of the messes – whether strewn on a grassy stream bank or across abandoned mine lands – should be a high priority, because the debris can lead to many problems, including water and soil contamination, diseases that harm people, even environmental catastrophes. Illegal dumping, for example, has been blamed for sparking or contributing to certain underground coal mine fires, like Centralia.
That’s why the nonprofit organization where I serve as Executive Director gets so involved in organizing cleanups and advocating for changes, not only in attitudes and behaviors, but also to state laws.
For 30 years, the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR) near Wilkes-Barre has consistently teamed with project partners and volunteers in the region’s coal communities to improve landscapes and lives. This year is no different.
During April – recognized as Earth Month – EPCAMR was especially active in bringing increased attention to illegal dumping and its harms. Here’s a bit of what did.
EPCAMR organized a community forum titled “Illegal Dumping: Let’s Talk Trash and Tires,” featuring guest speakers from dozens of organizations including Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau and the North Branch Land Trust. The event on April 11 at Luzerne County Community College allowed for a great exchange of information about illegal dumping enforcement and prevention initiatives.
Bobby providing an overview of the EPCAMR Regional Community Assessment on Illegal Dumping of Tires and Trash at LCCC for the Illegal Dumping: Let’s Talk Trash & Tires Educational Forum on April 11 coordinated by EPCAMR and hosted by LCCC.
Presentations that were made are included here for you to download and see what was discussed and talked about in great detail with a tremendous amount of positive energy and questions and answers from our speakers as well as our audience in attendance.
EPCAMR x KPB Community Assessment.pptx
Hanover_PD_Lets Talk Trash & TIRES.pptx
Columbia_County_Recycling_4-11-26 .pptx
Illegal Dumping Sierra Club Pre_ByMuncie
MDC EPCAMR Forum Presentation_4.11.26 v2.pptx
Open Your Eyes to Litter presentation.pptx
Bloomsburg_Community_Creek_Cleanup
PennEnviroScreen and illegal dumping.pptx
EPCAMR and its partners scheduled several trash cleanups, the first of which was held on April 18 along Tomhicken Road in Black Creek Township. 35 EPCAMR volunteers and volunteers from the Friends of the Nescopeck Creek watershed association, successfully removed an estimated 175 bags of garbage (4.375 T), 150 diet iced tea gallon jugs (last year there were 53 jugs), and 60 vehicle tires from the watershed.
Ice T jugs being counted before being disposed of and emptied.
Ethan Hughes, Bobby’s son, did a little dance after picking up the last of the 150 Iced T jugs.
What a great day we had today along the Black Creek in lower Luzerne County with our partners on our Tomhicken Road Roadside Cleanup.
Bobby providing Marie Welsh with an Honorary EPCAMR Volunteer T-shirt for her 50 years of service in cleaning up her community in the Sugarloaf Township and Black Creek Township areas.
Mumaw’s Garage out of Nuremburg donated the use of their flatbed to pick up all of the trash, scrap and tires for the event.
Friends of the Nescopeck Creek watershed volunteers picking up some roadside litter along Tomhicken Road.
Bobby and Annie from the LCCAC, getting the job done along Tomhicken Road.
Keystone Job Center Volunteer Crew walking along the guardrail below the Coal Mine Road on the bend near Yamulla’s property.
Chris O’Rourke, long-time EPCAMR Volunteer brought his neighbor and friend Lucas Warman to the cleanup who is excited about future cleanups now.
After the cleanup, the majority of the 10 miles of Tomhicken Road looked this clean and green!
Additional cleanups are planned later this year in Hanover Township, Ashley, Pittston, the headwaters of Nanticoke Creek off Holly Street, Columbia County in the Catawissa Creek watershed, and along Snake Road, and possibly other communities. Volunteers are welcomed. For details on upcoming events, watch EPCAMR’s Facebook page.
EPCAMR Volunteers graphic
During April, EPCAMR officially became an affiliate of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful – the state’s top antilittering organization. Our organization had long been a supporter of this program, promoting its activities and helpful resources as well as reporting the results of our cleanups (such as the number of vehicle tires collected and pounds of other trash removed) for its database. Our new status as an affiliate will strengthen that relationship and increase EPCAMR’s ability to support cleanup activities in these four counties: Carbon, Columbia, Northumberland and Sullivan.
EPCAMR will continue to collaborate with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s other affiliates across the region, including the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s NE regional office in Luzerne County, to hold cleanup events and spruce up public spaces.
To be clear, EPCAMR was not established as a nonprofit for the purpose of organizing and conducting litter cleanups. Instead, EPCAMR was founded to promote the reclamation of the region’s abandoned mine lands and to prevent the polluted water that pours out of old coal mines from spoiling our creeks and rivers. However, our EPCAMR employees often discover while performing their clean-water projects in the field that abandoned mine lands and sensitive watershed areas are being abused by dumpers. So, our organization takes on the additional responsibility of combatting litter.
We rely on financial support to pay for related costs such as trash receptable rentals and tire recycling fees. The Amazon Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Fund and the Greenlight Project are two grant-making entities that recently provided funding to support some of our 2026 cleanup projects.
Businesses and individuals like you can help to expand EPCAMR’s cleanup efforts by donating items such as bottled water, pizza and snacks to fuel our event volunteers. Or send a financial contribution.
Collectively, we can rid our local landscapes of illegal dumps and other eyesores that detract from the natural beauty of Northeast Pennsylvania’s forests, fields and streamsides.
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