Join us in our mission to protect and preserve the natural beauty of New Mexico. Through community-driven trash and litter clean-up efforts, we’re making a difference across our stunning landscapes, from high desert plains to mountain peaks.
Litter and trash not only harm our environment but also impact wildlife, water quality, and the beauty of our state. We can make a significant difference by reducing waste, educating others, and taking action. Every piece of trash picked up is a step towards a cleaner, healthier New Mexico.
Find upcoming trash clean-up and litter prevention events in your area. Whether you’re an individual, family, or group, your time and effort can help us keep our communities and natural spaces beautiful and healthy.
Land of Enchantment Young Ambassadors are community leaders committed to keeping New Mexico clean. In a 9-month program, they work with officials and peers on clean-up projects, ending with a capstone that beautifies their community.
Discover organizations near you that are dedicated to keeping New Mexico clean. Explore volunteer opportunities, partner with community leaders, and work together toward a cleaner, greener future.
Help us combat illegal dumping and littering by reporting problem areas in your community. Your input helps us act quickly and maintain the cleanliness of our roads, parks, and public spaces.
Join fellow New Mexicans in upcoming trash and litter clean-up events to help keep our beautiful state clean. Together, we can protect our landscapes and create a healthier environment for future generations!
Event Location: City Water Tower 933 N Adobe Drive Hobbs 88240
Event Location: City Water Tower 933 N Adobe Drive Hobbs 88240
Event Location: Gila Community Foundation 1106 N. Pope St. 88061
Discover opportunities to volunteer with local organizations dedicated to keeping New Mexico clean and beautiful.
Whether you’re passionate about litter prevention, recycling, or community clean-ups, you can find groups in the grid that match your interests.
Together, we can preserve the natural beauty of our state and make a lasting impact on our environment!
Across New Mexico, communities are stepping up to make a difference through inspiring clean-up efforts. These success stories highlight the dedication and positive outcomes achieved by local volunteers, organizations, and residents working together to protect and enhance our environment.
Use the interactive map to find your local government contact for reporting litter, illegal dumping, or graffiti in your area. Simply click on your location to view contact details for the local authority responsible for your area. Let us know if you’d like us to follow up with you to see how things went with your report.
New Mexico’s stunning landscapes and vibrant communities are treasures worth protecting. By taking this pledge, you commit to doing your part in keeping our state beautiful, clean, and sustainable for future generations. Whether it’s picking up litter, recycling, or conserving resources, every small action makes a big difference. Join us in preserving the beauty of New Mexico—together, we can make a lasting impact.
New Mexico’s natural beauty is one of its greatest treasures, but it requires ongoing efforts to preserve and protect it. Our state’s trash clean-up initiatives play a vital role in maintaining clean, healthy environments for residents, visitors, and wildlife alike. Explore the key areas of focus below to see how we’re working together to keep New Mexico pristine.
Collecting trash reduces environmental pollution and improves the natural beauty of New Mexico’s landscapes, making them safer for both wildlife and humans.
Organizing clean-up events brings communities together, fostering a sense of ownership and pride in keeping New Mexico’s environments clean and healthy.
Engaging volunteers ensures the success of clean-up efforts by providing the manpower needed to tackle large-scale projects across New Mexico.
Installing trash receptacles in key locations prevents littering and encourages responsible disposal of waste in public areas.
Planting trees during clean-up efforts helps restore natural habitats, improve air quality, and reduce the effects of climate change.
Clearing illegal dumping sites removes hazardous waste, making areas safer for residents and wildlife, while deterring future illegal dumping.
Improving walking and hiking paths ensures safe, litter-free routes for recreation, encouraging more people to enjoy and protect New Mexico’s natural spaces.
Collecting old tires prevents them from becoming breeding grounds for pests and reduces environmental hazards such as fires and water contamination.
This dashboard will be updated as new data is made available.
Across New Mexico, communities are stepping up to make a difference through inspiring clean-up efforts. These success stories highlight the dedication and positive outcomes achieved by local volunteers, organizations, and residents working together to protect and enhance our environment.
Forty-nine volunteers from the Public Education office spent an hour in the Santa Fe Railyard and Railyard Park picking up litter filling up approximately 27 bags to prepare the area for spring. The group enjoyed the team-building activity and the weather was perfect to be outdoors. Many community members approached the team to tell them how appreciative they were.
Over 75 volunteers, from the community picked up 120 bags of trash along Cerrillos Road, a preview to the statewide Great American Cleanup taking place throughout the month. The grassroots event brought together community, business and civic leaders to address litter in Santa Fe.
On March 15, twenty-one New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors teamed up with the Friends of Coronado to remove trash, debris, and over 400 invasive trees from the bosque at Coronado Historic Site in Bernalillo. The New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to improving trails, outdoor facilities and wildlife habitat on public lands throughout the state. The Friends Group at Coronado Historic Site is a fun, diverse group of over 300 volunteers of all ages who share a love of New Mexico’s cultural history and the desire to preserve it for future generations.
Volunteer organizations participating in cleanup campaigns are vital contributors to the cultural and historic preservation efforts in New Mexico. Managed by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), our eight state Historic Sites provide a place for communities and visitors to learn and celebrate the diverse history and beautiful landscape of our home. Litter and debris removal help prevent damage to archaeological sites, historic structures, and natural landscapes, which can provide valuable insights into the state’s past. Thanks to DCA’s dedicated staff and community partners, the growing interest to participate in cleanups has expanded to other Historic Sites where we expect to see additional events as an ongoing effort throughout the year.
Additional Photos can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/78338108@N07/albums/72177720324685543/with/54411764593
In the spring of 2024, 150 youth from Santa Fe participated in the Governor’s School Community Challenge. The students collected 180 bags of trash at Salvador Perez, Ragle, DeVargas, and SWAN Parks. These parks are among the most popular in the City and the presence of litter detracted from the enjoyment of residents to enjoy these public spaces. The students represented Santa Fe High School, Capital High School, Mandela International, Early College Opportunities, Boys and Girls Club of Santa Fe/Del Norte, and the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Board.
As part of the Challenge, each team recoded a challenge to another city in New Mexico to complete a similar clean-up event in their community. The team that cleaned up DeVargas Park challenged Albuquerque schools to clean up their parks. The team that cleared litter from Ragle Park issued a challenge to the students of Roswell to improve the cleanliness of their public spaces. A Santa Fe High School team that swarmed Salvador Perez Park to pick up trash issued a challenge to Farmington to do the same. Lastly, the team from Capital High School challenged the Las Cruces students to clear their community of litter and trash.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation, the City of Santa Fe, and Santa Fe County provided staff and equipment to make the challenge a success. Snacks were donated by Food King and award funds were generously donated by Zia Factory Outlet Home Sales and Mark Duran and Associates.
Events held over an eight-month period had remarkable success, collecting 8,203 tires equaling 134.71 tons of unwanted tires in total across all sixteen Tire Amnesty Days. After unwanted tires were collected, the City of Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department assisted with compacting and shredding these materials for reuse. The ASK Academy located in Rio Rancho, also picked up 70 tires from the events and reused the recycled materials to create a rammed Earthship structure. Bernalillo County’s goal for the future is to continue to educate the public about proper scrap tire disposal.
The City of Carlsbad partners annually with Eddy County and the Bureau of Land Management for Riverblitz, an event that focuses on litter eradication in their community, driven by volunteer participants. In 2024, the event was responsible for the clean-up effort along 12 miles of the Pecos River and collecting 21,385 pounds of litter. Riverblitz was a major success, with plans to hold the 2025 event on March 1st.
The City of Carlsbad and Keep Carlsbad Beautiful participate in several ways to eradicate litter from their community. In the past year, they have placed six trash receptacles along the MainStreet District to reduce litter, as well as organize several community clean-up opportunities. One-hundred and thirty-six youths from 24 youth groups participated in clean-up activities throughout the community in the past year. In partnership with NMTD, the City of Carlsbad and Keep Carlsbad Beautiful, were able to use $12,000 in grant funding to pay stipends to these youth groups for their efforts. In total, the youth groups dedicated 90 hours to clean-ups in Carlsbad eradicating 36,156 pounds of litter across 45 miles.
The City of Roswell has been dedicated to cleaning up their community through youth volunteer efforts, for years. To aid in this effort clean-up kits were purchased through grant funding consisting of trash grabbers, buckets, trash bags, gloves, and safety vests. Community volunteers were able to “check-out” these supplies at the local library to collect litter around the city. Throughout the last fiscal year, the City of Roswell in partnership with Keep Roswell Beautiful funded, twenty-two youth group clean-up events. In total, two-hundred and twenty-six youths participated in community clean-ups that collectively removed 4,149.81 pounds of litter throughout the City of Roswell. Volunteer youth clean-up initiatives were able to eradicate litter and debris from thirteen roadway miles, 337.99 acres, and 1.43 waterway miles were cleaned over the course of 663 hours. Youth clean-up initiatives are remarked as a proven success and the City of Roswell hopes to continue to empower youth and eradicate litter in their community.
Throughout the last year, the Village of Ruidoso carried out several diverse efforts to ensure their community was a clean environment for its residents and tourists alike. In partnership with the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful Program, the Village was able to place bear-safe receptacles around Alto Lake to encourage patrons to dispose of litter in receptacles and prevent litter in and around the lake. The Village also held their annual community clean-up events, Toss No Más and the Great American Clean-up with the help of community and youth volunteers. The Toss No Más River Clean-up saw 12 miles of waterways cleaned and 3,650 pounds of litter collected. During the Great American Clean-up event, 34 miles of roadways and waterways were cleaned, resulting in 6,000 pounds of litter collected.
The Village’s collective clean-up efforts pledged to eradicate debris and litter from lakes, adapt-a-miles, and roadways, resulting in 3,000 miles of litter recovered, with the assistance of 181 paid youth volunteers participating over the course of 453 hours throughout the fiscal year.
During the last school year, the City of Santa Fe successfully implemented an educational campaign to teach elementary students about the negative impact of litter in their community; their education initiative reached 324 students ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.
With the help of Clean & Beautiful grant funding, they distributed copies of the book “Critters Don’t Litter” to City of Santa Fe elementary students. In tandem with their educational efforts, the City of Santa Fe in partnership with Keep Santa Fe Beautiful, supported volunteer youth clean-up events, like Toss No Más and the Great American Clean-up to empower youth to act in removing litter from their community. Through these two clean-up events, volunteers successfully eradicated nearly 30 tons of litter over 209 miles of open spaces, trails, and city neighborhoods.
The Town of Silver City in partnership with Pick It up – Toss No Más and the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful Program supported numerous anti-litter efforts throughout the community and surrounding area during the previous fiscal year. This alliance provided internship opportunities for eight youth from Silver City High School, who assisted in activities such as litter pickup and beautification efforts around the community. With the help of a marketing campaign funded by Clean & Beautiful they were able to promote monthly community clean-ups at the Silco Theater.
The Town of Silver City’s clean-up efforts allowed 217 total volunteers to participate in eradicating litter from their community which resulted in the removal of 6,824 pounds of litter. All efforts were successful, and the Town of Silver City will continue to offer these opportunities to keep their community clean & beautiful.
Recently, Bernalillo County experienced a significant increase in illegal tire dumping and dump sites. Illegal tire dump sites are a clear environmental, health, and safety concern for several reasons, including but not limited to attracting rodents and mosquitoes. In an effort to combat this issue, Bernalillo County, in partnership with the City of Albuquerque Solid Waste Department, and the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful Program held sixteen tire amnesty events throughout the County to encourage and educate residents to properly dispose of unwanted tires. Each County resident was able to dispose of a maximum of nine tires each per event free of charge; tires were not accepted from commercial businesses.
Events held over an eight-month period had remarkable success, collecting 8,203 tires equaling 134.71 tons of unwanted tires in total across all sixteen Tire Amnesty Days. After unwanted tires were collected, the City of Albuquerque’s Solid Waste Department assisted with compacting and shredding these materials for reuse. The ASK Academy located in Rio Rancho, also picked up 70 tires from the events and reused the recycled materials to create a rammed Earthship structure. Bernalillo County’s goal for the future is to continue to educate the public about proper scrap tire disposal.
I wanted to extend a huge thank you to everyone who showed up Tuesday morning for our August Cleanup “make-up day.” Once again, our incredible team demonstrated their dedication and hard work by gathering an impressive 20 bags of heavy trash. The haul included drenched discarded clothing, dried broken tree limbs, a broken recycle bin, a destroyed camping chair, a tire, and even a gigantic rain-soaked dog bed. Throughout the morning, I was greeted by many happy folks on the trail who expressed their appreciation for our efforts and asked questions about how they could participate in future events. It was heartwarming to see the community’s support and interest in our initiative.
Thank you all for your fantastic contributions to keeping our environment clean and beautiful. Let’s keep up the great work and continue to make a positive impact together!