Keep ABQ Beautiful: Solid Waste Department shares ways to keep the city clean

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The City of Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department had a pretty creative 2021, and they want to keep that momentum going so the city can look clean and beautiful.

On its Youtube page are remix rap songs about throwing out Christmas lights, a fairy teaching you about illegal dumping, and other parodies.

"We created a show called Talkin’ Trash Tuesday, which are one -inute videos that talk about contamination, illegal dumping, tree cycling our Albuquerque cleanup month, but we also incorporated our keep food get clean fairy, who does 30nd videos on how, what you should do what goes in your cart, what doesn’t go in your cart, the top 10 items in your cart," explained Solid Waste Director Matthew Whelan.

There’s even a video called Super Mateo! It’s a play on Super Mario and it explains how the carts should be placed before trash pickup.

"It’s a funny message, but the messages are 100% important," said Whelan. "That’s the most important thing about these videos, and we want it to just stay in people’s minds."

The goal is to educate about trash to keep Albuquerque beautiful. In 2022, they’re looking to turn these projects bilingual with Spanish videos too.

"We’re going to keep doing the stuff that we’ve been doing, but we’re going to expand it more," said Whelan.

At the 2021 Twinkle Light Parade, employees were able to bring more attention to their work while winning best in show.

"We were able to give out 1000 reusable bags because that’s one of our other messages is the reusable bags," said Whelan. "Use your reusable bags." If you wouldl like to watch the videos, click here.