The Trash Man of Uptown, Henry LaBounta

Wedge LIVE!

There's a saying that sometimes one man's trash is still another man's trash. That other man is Henry LaBounta of the East Isles neighborhood. On land or in the lakes, Henry is picking up trash. Whether he's walking his dog on Hennepin Ave, out in his kayak on Lake of the Isles, or donning waders at the shoreline, he's filling up buckets and buckets of garbage. Discarded fast food containers, hypodermic needles, dead animals -- he's keeping meticulous statistics about what and how much he's collected. In this episode, we talk about how Henry's weird obsession has grown into something more. He's applying for grant money and collaborating with neighborhood organizations. We talk about the importance of intervening in the trash cycle early, before it ends up in the street and gets washed into our lakes and waterways; infrastructure and street maintenance fixes; how keeping a place clean can discourage more litter; and how local government and people like you can help.

You can contact Henry at [e-mail] and find more information by searching for "Friends of Lake of the Isles" on Facebook.

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