MALDEN, MA — A set of large letters spelling the word “REDUCE” is now on display outside of the Malden Department of Public Works facility on Commercial Street in Malden thanks to a collaboration between Malden community members and Melrose's Keep Melrose Beautiful group.

Dubbed “litter letters,” the sign is a series of three-dimensional letters. It encourages passersby to fill the letters with plastics and other litter to help clean up area neighborhoods.

“By displaying these large-scale visual messages in public places, the hope is to encourage people to reduce their purchases of single use plastic bottles to keep our cities, streets, and waterways clean,” the city of Malden said in a recent press release.

The litter letters date back to the spring of 2021 when Keep Melrose Beautiful unveiled the display on the eve of the city’s Earth Week Community Cleanup. The five-foot-tall letters were initially placed at the corner of Lynn Fells Parkway and Tremont Street in Melrose.

Melrose resident Jack Welch built the letters using PVC pipe, mesh wire and designs from Follow Your Art Community Studios director Kris Rodolico, as noted in an announcement from Keep Melrose Beautiful at the time.

“It was a good way to give back,” Welch said.

Welch is a photographer and retired HVAC and pipefitting professional.

The litter letters trace their inspiration back to a project in Louisiana in 2013, with local organizers first learning of the project through a similar effort in Sherborn, which built Massachusetts’s first litter letters.

The Melrose Messina Fund for the Arts helped pay for supplies for Melrose’s project.

Naomi Kahn of Malden Arts saw the letters in Melrose, reaching out to Demi Dubois of Keep Melrose Beautiful to coordinate bringing the installation across city lines into Malden. Khan then worked with Karen Buck of the Friends of the Malden River to set up the letters at the city’s DPW yard back in May.

“The community enjoys being involved with clean-ups,” Buck said in Malden’s recent statement. “Now we can visualize the waste by filling the REDUCE letters with plastic bottles and other recyclables.”

Malden Mayor Gary Christenson similarly thanked Kahn and Buck for their work to bring the letters to Malden.

Anyone is invited to drop litter they collect from area roadways into the litter letters at the Malden DPW facility at 356 Commercial Street in Malden.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.