As the 2026 NFL Draft gets closer, efforts continue to clean up the Pittsburgh area.
Leaders on Friday gave an update on the Immaculate Collection, which is an effort to pick up litter and beautify the city before hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive for the NFL Draft.
Flanked by a trash can overflowing with junk, debris and garbage, Caily Grube, the executive director of Allegheny CleanWays, says things are looking good when it comes to redding up the county and the city.
“We’ve had more than 50 neighborhoods already host litter clean-ups with dozens more scheduled through April,” Grube said.
In September of last year, the county and city initiated the Immaculate Collection effort to help get ready for what’s expected to be one of the biggest events in Pittsburgh history.
“Every detail matters when it comes to redding up our city for the NFL Draft and well beyond,” said Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor.
John Patrick Bagley, who is with the Allegheny CleanWays’ Dump Busters, said his crew has removed about 2,000 pounds of trash from an alley in McKeesport, with another 3,000 possibly to follow.
“You’ll have an abandoned home, an abandoned garage that just kind of inevitably gets filled up with other people’s dumped possessions,” Bagley said.
And draft or no draft, Bagley says people appreciate the hard work.
“The neighbors greatly appreciate it, because they’re not the ones doing the dumping, they’re the victims of the dumping,” Bagley said.
This large-scale trash round up won’t end with the last pick of the NFL draft. Officials say they’ve got the money in donations to keep it going for years to come. That said, they could always use more.