Last year, an amazing 648,015 volunteers picked up more than 12.3 million pounds of trash during the 2013 International Coastal Cleanup.  Not near the coast? Rivers and streams provide 65% of our nation’s drinking water. Not to mention every river flows to the coast eventually; so you can still participate in a coastal clean up by preventing the plastics from getting to the coast.  

Project Aware funded  “What Goes Around, Comes Around” POP, Inc. takes part in river clean ups across the USA. In June, we worked with the 4-H kids cleanup the White River in Spencer Indiana.  This past month in Reno, NV over 50 people showed up with Keep Truckee River Beautiful.  While picking up pounds of trash along the shore, a man who was fishing in the river walked up with an armful of plastics and asked if we could take it.  Then commented “it just keeps coming”, the fisherman continued to help by getting the plastic hung up on rocks.  Just by stumbling upon our clean up the fisherman made a huge impact on our progress. 

Hundreds of volunteers for Iowa’s Project Aware finished canoeing 91 miles of the Big Sioux River in mid July.  Almost 400 canoeists registered to aid in the river clean up, which due to flooding in recent months has made the task even more daunting.  “Obviously with flood waters there is going to be additional debris that washes in.  Some of it is flood related, some of it is what we call legacy trash, trash that’s been in the river for a while,” said Project Aware organizer Lynette Seigley.  Among the tons of trash removed were more than 500 tires and 14 tons of scrap metal.  River clean ups are crucial in effectively keeping our coasts and oceans clean.

Are you organizing or planning to be a part of one in your area? Let us know so we can help you publicize it.  Contact: [email protected] and we will post it on our social media.