Executive Walks 12 Miles Every Day to Pick Up Trash

By developer April 1, 2021
Billy Adams has been taking different 12-mile walks around DC throughout the COVID pandemic – with his mission being to pick up trash along the way.

They call him the “garbage guy”. Billy Adams, a software executive and Washington D.C. native, developed a lockdown ritual that not only benefits his health but the environment as well. Each morning, prior to walking his typical 12 miles, Adam stops at the Starbucks on M Street in Georgetown to buy a coffee and collect an empty plastic bag. From there, he goes on a 3-hour walk, picking up as much trash by hand as he can.

In a quote to the Washington Post, Adams explains that this process is incredibly satisfying: “When you see it beforehand, then you walk by it after and it’s all clean, that’s a good feeling.”

It is the employees at the M Street Starbucks that gave Adams the name “garbage guy.”  His routine has had its impact on the coffee-chain employees, inspiring each of them to be more conscientious of their litter.

Billy has also inspired his extended family to get out, go on walks, and clean up along the way. His sister, Caroline Miller, is now going on walks with her husband and picks up any litter she comes across.

“Billy is somebody who likes to do the right thing,” Miller said in a statement to the Post. “If he sees trash on the ground, he can’t just walk past it.”

Adam’s family has deep-roots in D.C. From Bethesda, Maryland, which sits adjacent to Washington, his great-great-grandfather, Jacob Karr, lived within walking distance from the White House and owned the most popular watch store in the city. Karr was friendly with Abraham Lincoln and all of the US presidents up until he retired in the early 1900s, as he tended to their watches. Given this extensive history, it is no wonder Adams has such a profound love for our nation’s capital!

Billy is hoping to set up a collective clean-up for Earth Day, to further inspire others to get into the good habit of exercise and cleaning up – a way to do good and feel good all at the same time!