Firearms. Bags of ammunition. Hundreds upon hundreds of used needles.
These are just a few of the more concerning items that have been recovered from the streets of Baton Rouge by the “litter warriors” of Keep Tiger Town Beautiful, a local group of activists that hosts community cleanups each day with a shared goal of creating a trash-free Capital City.
The grassroots organization was launched in January 2021 by Jennifer Richardson, a local real estate agent who was appalled by the conditions of an overgrown median on Essen Lane that harbored an exorbitant amount of litter—beer cans, cigarette butts, water bottles and the like. Because she felt the city was not doing enough to combat the proliferation of trash on its streets, she resolved to take matters into her own hands, and soon after, the Keep Tiger Town Beautiful Facebook group was born.
What began as a relatively small group of concerned residents has since exploded, with more than 5,300 Facebook members and a dedicated team of roughly 100 volunteers. To date, the group has set up 150 public trash cans throughout Baton Rouge, cleaned out hundreds of clogged drains and filled roughly 13,200 contractor-sized trash bags of litter.
As a real estate agent, Richardson says she has witnessed how the litter affects the city’s economic future.
“When people are thinking about moving to Baton Rouge or accepting jobs here, they want to know why we live in such filth,” she says. “I lose buyers. I lose people who are going to open up a business here and employ people here. It’s just terrible.”
However, the challenges that littler presents to local businesses are often overlooked.
Read the full story from the latest edition of Business Report.
