2025’s Dirtiest Cities in America

In what ways does a dirty city directly affect its residents?

I’m not sure what they’re referring to as a dirty city; I’m assuming it is trash related. If it is trash, this attracts vectors which can ultimately lead to illnesses and diseases. Also, just the “dirty appearance” detracts from the community pride.

What steps can cities take to achieve a cleaner environment and better air quality?

In the US, there are many environmental regulations that are intended to protect the public. Compliance with the regulations would be sufficient. However, often the public is not aware of the regulatory requirements. So, it’s often a lack of information sharing of the requirements.

Cleanliness isn’t cheap. How can local governments balance their budgets while spending the necessary funds to keep their cities clean?

That is a difficult task. Funds are usually limited and governmental programs with funding are also in high demand, so many cities are left out. The most important part is educating people about why it’s important so that they comply.

How can individual residents contribute to a cleaner city?

Citizens can contribute by being informed and wanting to be responsible. It’s not a question of needing additional regulation, but rather complying with those that already exist.

In what ways does a dirty city directly affect its residents?

Dirty air implies poor health of the citizens due to excess exposure to polluted air.

What steps can cities take to achieve a cleaner environment and better air quality?

There are two sides that should be considered:

1. Reduction of particulate and other air pollutants (ozone, NOx, CO) through rerouting of highways away from densely populated areas, increased use of public transportation, and cleaner transportation and power plants.
2. Greening of cities through planting and maintenance of trees and establishing green rooftops. Rerouting transportation may become a moot point as internal combustion engines are made obsolete with electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Cleanliness isn’t cheap. How can local governments balance their budgets while spending the necessary funds to keep their cities clean?

Planting trees is one of the most cost-effective tools available. The environmental benefits accrued from having planted trees can pay for themselves. Additional benefits not mentioned earlier include a reduced need for air conditioning (reducing the energy demand of neighboring buildings), due to the cooling effects from the trees, and a reduction in stormwater runoff.

Building the infrastructure to manage stormwater runoff can be extremely expensive. Trees reduce the maximum demand for such systems, thus reducing the overall cost of such systems.

Finally, the physical and mental health of residents is improved by having adequate tree canopy. Thus, there should be attendant reductions in cost for police protection and health care.

How can individual residents contribute to a cleaner city?

They can drive less and use public transportation. They can ask their representatives to consider the factors mentioned above when doing city planning. Citizens can ask for more trees to be planted in their neighborhoods.

If they have a good site for doing so, they can plant an appropriate tree on their own property. As an example: in Hartford, to reach their goal for tree canopy cover, the city will have to convince many property owners to allow trees to be planted on their land. There just aren’t enough city parks and right-of-way space to establish enough trees to meet the canopy goals on city property.

In what ways does a dirty city directly affect its residents?

How do you define dirty when it comes to a city? Is it merely air pollution? Do trash and general cleanliness count?

If air pollution is the sole criterion, then research has demonstrated that in cities where the concentrations of suspended particulate matter are high, in particular, PM2.5, you see a greater prevalence of respiratory illnesses. However, recent research indicates that air pollution adversely affects the development of children, including cognitive function.

What steps can cities take to achieve a cleaner environment and better air quality?

In larger cities, better mass transit systems can encourage citizens to reduce their daily driving, which reduces outdoor air pollution. However, we forget that we spend most of our time during the day indoors. Indoor air pollution is a forgotten, less publicized, problem.

Whether it is sitting in our cars during long commutes or spending 90% of our time inside our workplace and home, we are exposed to various chemicals. The more energy efficient our buildings and homes become, the more air is “trapped” indoors, increasing the concentrations of potential hazards, e.g., radon.

What lessons can we learn from some of the world’s cleanest big cities like Copenhagen and Singapore?

A collaborative effort among citizens, governance, and industries is needed to make significant improvements in the environment. All stakeholders must participate in conversations to make change happen.

How can individual residents contribute to a cleaner city?

In the United States, reducing the amount of driving that we do on a daily basis can improve outdoor air quality. Local and state governments can work together to close coal-burning power plants and incinerators in addition to halting new incinerators from being built.

But again, the effects of indoor air pollutants are significant and should not be ignored when developing strategies to improve air quality in cities.

In what ways does a dirty city directly affect its residents?

First, we must define what “dirty” really means. From my perspective, it isn’t litter, but the effect on population health and individual health that accompanies living in an urban area. There are several factors from that perspective: air quality, water quality, and noise quality. It is not an aesthetic issue; it is about hazards on so many levels that affect a population’s health.

Everyone’s health is affected by exposure to air pollution. Through our lungs, we breathe in air pollutants. From there, they enter our bodies and contribute to lung cancer and other diseases.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio. Absent, inadequate, or inappropriately managed water and sanitation services expose individuals to preventable health risks.

There are direct links between noise and health. Millions of people are affected negatively by noise pollution. Noise affects us in multiple ways: stress-related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss, sleep disruption, and lost productivity.

What steps can cities take to achieve a cleaner environment and better air quality?

I do not think a cleaner environment solely means improved air quality. This is about how to make cities cleaner altogether, in all aspects of life. We need to reduce carbon-emitting cars, trucks, and buses; traffic emits so many pollutants into the environment that impact us. We need to think about big power plants close to, or within, the cities.

Buildings in urban areas emit CO2, heat, and noise through heating systems, air-conditioning, and building services.

What we really need to look to do better is to transition from primarily carbon-based energy to green forms of energy. We need to replace dirty air-polluting power production with green energy.

Our cities need more green spaces, trees, and parks and less non-permeable surfaces like parking lots. The urban green can help by cleaning the air and producing zones of coolness in places that were once heat islands. Fresh-air corridors need to remain in place to ventilate cities with fresh air coming in from the countryside.

Cleanliness isn’t cheap. How can local governments balance their budgets while spending the necessary funds to keep their cities clean?

Regulations and some political benchmarking are needed to reduce emissions at every level. That can be done by restricting traffic in areas to reduce pollution. We can influence human behavior with financial incentives –– things like installing solar panels on homes and collecting rainwater.

On a personal level, there are many things we can do while there are also things that communities and cities can do. But it all comes down to identifying ways to change personal behavior. Driving less and using bikes, public transportation, or walking more.

Behavioral change on an urban level means looking at how and where we are building and maintaining buildings, but doing that in smarter, more responsible ways. Not everything is free, but you can make changes from one aspect to another by reducing subsidies or favoring one industry over another with environmental benefits in mind, like spending less money on streets and more on bike lanes.

What lessons can we learn from some of the world’s cleanest big cities like Copenhagen and Singapore?

When I think of cities, I do not think of their governments or their buildings, but the people living there.

People in Copenhagen, Singapore, and other clean cities around the world fully embrace the concept of carbon neutrality, green energy, public transportation, and the ability to bike and walk safely. They fully embrace giving up individual transportation in lieu of a livable city.

To make the change towards a greener, healthier, and cleaner city, good public transportation is the cornerstone. The public transportation in Copenhagen and Singapore is fantastic, which is why people use it, unlike a city like Los Angeles which barely has any public transportation.

Transforming a city into a clean and green one requires both a top-down approach and a bottom-up approach. For example, the city can turn carbon-based energy production into green, localized energy production. At the same time, we –– the citizens of cities –– can embrace carbon-neutral lifestyles.

The new clean city approach involves multiple players –– from transportation and energy to the building sector –– as well as human behavior.

How can individual residents contribute to a cleaner city?

As individuals, we need to take responsibility for our cities. It’s not only the city’s responsibility. We must collectively change the world. We need to embrace cleanliness on many levels, from the way we move to our daily habits. It’s not just littering or trash on the streets. While that may be the most visible effect, there are more severe effects tied to global warming, and that affects all living organisms on our planet.

In what ways does a dirty city directly affect its residents?

Litter has a range of impacts, including environmental, economic, health, and even crime. At Glitter we are working to remove litter from the streets in neighborhoods that often lack the resources to tackle this issue the way wealthier areas with dense commercial activity can.

In cities like Philadelphia, wealthy neighborhoods hire private cleaners to keep streets clean. Lacking the dollars and infrastructure, lower and mixed-income residential areas are neglected, leading to a disproportionate level of these negative consequences for those residents.

And I’d encourage rethinking the use of the word ‘citizens’ for two reasons: firstly, visitors (whether native or foreign-born), are going to judge a city by its level of cleanliness. Just look at Philadelphia –– we’ve sadly earned the nickname “Filthadelphia” –– and it has an impact on our image and I’m sure our tourism industry among others. The second reason is that those who live in a city but are not citizens still deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment.

What steps can cities take to achieve a cleaner environment and better air quality?

My focus with Glitter is empowering communities with an affordable and impactful street cleaning service that places a cleaner on every block. We make it affordable for neighbors to pay-what-you-can-afford to split the cost of someone coming and cleaning the block.

We had tried to integrate this into our municipal services with the City of Philadelphia’s Streets Department, getting so far as actually succeeding in a line item in the city’s budget, but the leadership changed their minds, and it’s been an uphill battle since then to collaborate.

While we continue to hope that things improve with that partnership, we are growing and cleaning every day through our crowdfunding system with neighbors and are very excited about our success and impact there.

Cleanliness isn’t cheap. How can local governments balance their budgets while spending the necessary funds to keep their cities clean?

The first thing that is needed is experienced and motivated leadership. When you have that, then everything else can work, but without it, you get programs that lack KPIs, you get budget decisions that aren’t tied to goals, and you get employees who don’t care.

We need a street cleaning program that is designed to be effective and efficient –– it requires accountability on both ends of the organizational hierarchy. Right now there isn’t any at either end. What we have are gas-guzzling machines that burn fossil fuels, break down, and don’t clean sidewalks.

We need to stop spending money on ‘campaigns’ and start spending it on infrastructure that solves issues that are unique to our neighborhoods –– like in South Philly where thousands of rowhomes have been converted into small apartments without any outdoor storage access to keep trashbags, let alone a trashcan.

What lessons can we learn from some of the world’s cleanest big cities like Copenhagen and Singapore?

I don’t know much about those cities so I can’t say what they are doing well and how that can translate –– especially without understanding the economic, structural, cultural, and political contexts of these places.

What I can say is that cities like Philadelphia, where litter is a major problem, need to spend more time understanding what isn’t working and why and then address those areas. For too long we’ve had a Streets Commissioner who has been unwilling to admit when they falter, is intimidated by innovation, and is satisfied with the status quo.

How can individual residents contribute to a cleaner city?

Glitter is designed so that any resident can take an active role in cleaning up their city, one block at a time. A resident can sign up for a crowdfunding page with Glitter, make a pledge, and then recruit other neighbors to chip in.

Our process allows for regular cleaning of city blocks that don’t have the benefit of a wealthy commercial corridor. Glitter makes a clean beautiful neighborhood accessible and equitable, especially through matching grants, corporate sponsorship, and our impact fund donations that we use to offset costs in lower income areas.