Most kids don’t spend their time fretting over the damage done to the environment by litter, but then again, very few of them wind up running the sustainability office of a major American city.

An ardent recycler credited with starting dozens of “greening” efforts in Baltimore yesterday won the Richard A. Lidinsky Sr. Award of Excellence in Public Service at a ceremony in City Hall.

Beth A. Strommen, a 22-year veteran of the Planning Department, was commended by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake for initiating the bike planning program, a maritime master plan for the much-neglected Middle Branch and coordinating operational reforms that have saved the city $2 million.

As director of the Office of Sustainability, Strommen is responsible for integrating environmentally-sound practices into government and advocating for an urban environment that is cleaner, greener and, yes, involves less plastic and paper scattered about the streets.

There were two runner-ups for the prize, named after Richard Lidinsky, a longtime deputy city comptroller – Etta Crafton, a parking specialist with the parking authority, and Clark Howells, a watershed manager for the Department of Public Works.

Strommen spoke of her childhood preoccupation with litter, leading the mayor to confide that she, too, wrote passionate essays as a schoolgirl on the evils of improperly-disposed trash. “I think that’s why I like Beth so much,” the mayor joked.

The city planner was awarded $2,500 in cash as well as a handsome bronze replica of the Battle Monument. “Don’t recycle it!” Rawlings-Blake warned before an applauding audience of about 80.