Why do you do this?

Sometime in 2021, after seeing orange cones, tires, and shopping carts abandoned all over town, I got tired of it so I started doing something about it.

I first borrowed a friends truck, rode along with Memphis City Beautiful staff, and eventually started renting a U-Haul pickup truck to drive around and start collecting clutter around Memphis. It wasn't always trash - it was things that just needed to be put back where they belonged. 

For the past three years, I have been trying to make a small difference when and where I could. I quickly realized the current standard wasn't going to fix the problem.

Memphis 311 was overwhelmed with all types of resident concerns and struggled to handle the demand.

MLGW, Shelby County, TDOT and other agencies were responsible for some of the issues and they each had different methods to submit a ticket. It took over 3 months to figure out the ins and outs of who was responsible for certain issues and who could get action taken. 

Fast forward to late 2024, I attended the Memphis Hackathon - a local event that asked local tech gurus to develop solutions for some of Memphis' problems. Our team, Byte the Blight, won the grand prize! 

We proposed creating a new AI driven platform that simplifies the process to report blight, simplify the effort to clean up problems and create a better community with happier residents! Read more...

In January 2025, the Great Memphis Exchange Club honored our efforts with their Golden Deed Award and some funds to continue cleaning up the clutter around Memphis! 

If you are tired of seeing tires, shopping carts, construction barrels left behind for months, and general clutter along our roads and blocking sidewalks in Memphis, join us in cleaning up our city and return items where they belong, recycle them, or trash.