BATON ROUGE - While Keeping Tiger Town Beautiful and Keep Jaguar Nation Beautiful are helping keep parts of East Baton Rouge Parish clean, there's another effort to keep watersheds clear of litter. Marie Constantin is the founder of the Louisiana Storm Water Coalition and is on a personal crusade to clean up a part of Baton Rouge next to Spanish Town.

Constantin spends an hour each day riding the five by 10 block radius east of I-10 on her golf cart picking up litter with her grabber tool. She places each item in an orange plastic bucket and has reached expert level at the skill.

"I don't even have to stop to pick up a water bottle," she said.

Constantin met 2 On Your Side outside The Elysian apartments on Spanish Town Road to talk about an incident she's witnessed on several occasions involving an overflowing dumpster. The dumpsters are rolled out daily from a garage on the side of the building along Spanish Town Road where the complex says they're emptied eight times a week. Twice by Republic Services and six times by Waste Management. Even so, the dumpsters fill up quickly. Trash falls out and blows into the street, kicked by cars to the city's right of way across the street.

"Then along comes somebody and mows the litter," said Constantin.

Some of the debris is chopped into tiny pieces and it makes Constantin frustrated because it makes her volunteer work that much harder. Sometimes she can grab a couple of pieces at a time but it's nearly impossible to get it all.

The City-Parish says the grass across from The Elysian apartments has been cut this week. Litter collection prior to mowing is required. The city says it was cleaned Monday and Wednesday, filling an orange trash bag. Even though it's been cleaned, Constantin says things have to be better.

Another area that's troublesome for Constantin's efforts is under the KCS railroad. Trash accumulates and also appears to be chopped up into tiny pieces as the growth under the tracks is cut back.

"I can't keep calling my council person, she's not a litter cop," said Constantin.

Until then, Constantin will continue to ride along picking up trash, preventing it from eventually entering the waterways or getting stuck in the ground indefinitely as a microscopic piece of litter.

The Elysian is part of the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, which says is open to discussing a solution to the overflowing dumpsters.

Waste Management provided the following statement in response to Constantin's concerns:

Providing quality service to residents and the communities we serve is of the utmost importance at WM. We value our relationship with The Elysian Apartments and have had a continual dialogue with apartment management, offering several disposal options to better fit their needs. The area available at the complex for waste collection and pickup is limited, so we are continuing discussions and working together with apartment management to reach a solution in a timely manner.