Anthropogenic debris, or trash, impacts water quality and the ecology of urban streams, but how this trash interacts with ecosystem elements may modulate its effects on the stream and provide clues to sources and transport dyanmics. This study examined large trash (>5 cm) in two urban areas: Cleveland, Ohio and Charlotte, North Carolina. Data were collected at twenty-five urban stream reaches across these two regions, with 4-6 transects in each stream, approximately 50 m apart. For 2190 pieces of trash within 2 m of the transect, data on the trash’s characteristics and its location in the stream were collected. Separate cluster analyses were conducted on these two types of data creating 20 trash ‘morphospecies’ and 10 stream microhabitats to examine patterns of their occurrence across stream elements. An NMDS analysis was used to look at the differences in species composition across habitats. The ‘species’ composition of trash species between the cities was similar. Metal trash ‘species’ were most closely associated with two of the three habitat types containing wood. Stream reach characteristics were also considered and NMDS suggested those two wood-related habitats differed from other habitats most strongly based on a lower coefficient of variation of depth of the stream. We also observed that morphospecies associated with fibrous characteristics were associated with high wetted perimeter to width ratios in the reaches in which they were found. Understanding the behavior and transport of trash in urban streams can inform the management of urban streams and the design of litter prevention and removal campaigns, ultimately improving the quality of both urban streams and larger water bodies.