Recent LA transplant quits job, starts nonprofit to pick up trash across the city

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- When most people see trash piled up on streets or sidewalks, they drive or walk right by it, but one good Samaritan decided that just didn't sit right with him, and now, he's inspiring others to clean up their neighborhoods.

Juan Eduardo Naula knows how to transform life's mess into his life's mission. Every day, he picks up trash in Los Angeles after moving here nearly a year ago from Virginia.

"I didn't come here to pick up trash," Naula said, laughing. "I came here with a dream!"

He had a goal to link up with an L.A. investor to develop his rideshare app, but what he got was a waste of his time, leaving him down in the dumps.

"I was scammed out of $8,000 when I was two weeks here in L.A., and I was going to go back to Virginia, and my wife said, 'Don't go. Just keep doing it.' And then I started cleaning, and that was like therapy for me," Naula said.

That therapy helped him launch the nonprofit Clean L.A. With Me -- a viral social media phenomenon.

His Instagram page by the same name has grown to nearly 50,000 followers.

Some of his followers join him each week to literally pick up garbage across L.A.

In Boyle Heights, Naula built receptacles for the neighborhood.

"Compost, trash, cans and batteries. I want to have people use it," he said, pointing to what he's built. "I want to put more here, you know, down this road."

He quit his full-time job working with hardwood flooring to pick up trash, relying on donations and people to keep his operation going.

"Hopefully, we can have a thousand people start doing this. That would be awesome. We can make a club," Naula said. "I really love what I'm doing. I really love coming to the place that's really dirty and cleaning up and seeing the difference.