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Greenville, New Bern cleanups/cleanouts net 179 pounds of trash

Environmental, Litter-Free Rivers, Neuse River Watershed, Tar-Pamlico Watershed, Volunteer, Volunteers, Water Quality

Posted on October 17th, 2024

NC State students on an Alternative Service Break look for trash in Duffyfield Canal.

Sound Rivers’ Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz led cleanups, and cleanouts, in New Bern and Greenville with North Carolina State University students and members of the Sierra Club’s Cypress Group this week.

On Saturday, NCSU students on an Alternative Service Break, a “unique learning experience in which students engage in direct service to a community,” according to the NCSU website.

“They spent their fall break volunteering with different organizations in the New Bern area,” Emily said.

The students picked up 95 pounds of trash from and around the Duffyfield Canal trash trap, which landed some interesting finds, including a plastic chair and a troll doll.

The troll doll found in the Duffyfield Canal.

“They were such a fun group and were super-excited to get in the creek,” Emily said.

On Wednesday, she met members of the Cypress Group of the North Carolina Sierra Club at Greens Mill Run in Greenville to further introduce them to the trash trap the club has adopted for the month of October.

“We cleaned up 83.74 pounds of trash including a big cooler and, oddly enough, some plastic fruit,” Emily said.

Plastic fruit does not belong in Greens Mill Run.

The Adopt A Trash Trap program was recently launched as an opportunity for groups to get involved with Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program and its expanding fleet of trash traps across the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds. These passive litter-collection devices trap litter as it flows downstream, which is then removed by volunteers.

Sound Rivers trash traps are located on Jack’s Creek in Washington, Duffyfield Canal in New Bern, Little Rock Creek on the grounds of the Walnut Creek Wetland Center in Raleigh, Adkin Branch in Kinston, Greens Mill Run in Greenville, East Tarboro Canal in Tarboro and three more were recently installed on branches of Marsh Creek in Raleigh, in partnership with The Great Raleigh Cleanup, the City of Raleigh and N.C. State University.

A very full Greens Mill Run trash trap got a much-needed cleanout courtesy of Cypress Group of the Sierra Club members.

“If you have a group, whether that’s a club, a civic group, a group of friends, that’s interested in adopting a trash trap for a month, we’d love to have your help,” Emily said. “It’s a great way to help keep your waterways clean!”

More information about the Adopt A Trash Trap program can be found here.

For those interested in volunteering for the next trash trap cleanout, find out when and where the next one’s are scheduled here.