A museum dedicated to Oakland's trash

"A porcelain doll, its hands and feet wrapped in plastic. An old-school answering machine. A denture mold. These are just some of the 175 pieces of strange debris that members of the neighborhood cleanup group, the Trash Falcons, have found and catalogued over the years while cleaning up around Lake Merritt, including its shores, its lawns, and its paths and surrounding areas."

"Volunteers with the Trash Falcons have gathered every Sunday morning since 2020 to pick up trash around the lake and along Grand Avenue. A pair of bandmates, Richard Shirk and Dana Berry founded the group during pandemic lockdown as a way to spend time together outdoors. In the years since, the group has expanded - to 50 volunteers in 2022, and 100 as of this year."

"Since the group's inception, the Trash Falcons estimate that their volunteers have collected 15.6 tons of trash, averaging 20 pounds every time they meet for a cleanup. But the amount of junk they pick up ebbs and flows with the weather and what public events are happening at the lake."

The Trash Falcons, a volunteer cleanup group founded in 2020 by bandmates Richard Shirk and Dana Berry, have grown from two members to 100 volunteers who gather every Sunday morning to collect trash around Lake Merritt and Grand Avenue. The group has accumulated 15.6 tons of debris, averaging 20 pounds per cleanup session. Notable finds include a porcelain doll, answering machine, and denture mold. Two exhibitions showcase their work: "The Falcons Trash Museum (of Trash)" displays 175 catalogued items through March 6, while "What We Sow" features sculptures created from collected trash, photographs, and artwork through April 10 at the Junior Center of Art and Science.

Read at The Oaklandside