News

Members of East Carolina University’s Honors College brought their month-long trash trap adoption to a close with a final cleanout on Friday.

“We all enjoyed helping out and would love to adopt the trap again in the future,” said Tierney Reardon.

Tierney, a summer 2024 Sound Rivers intern, orchestrated the adoption of the trash trap, located on Greens Mill Run, a tributary of the Tar River.

Friday, she and fellow Honors College students Brent Humann and Joanna Matthew removed 25 pounds of trash, in addition to clearing many (many!) leaves, from the trash trap.

The trash trap on Greens Mill Run in Greenville was the fifth of 9 passive litter collection devices Sound Rivers has installed on urban waterways throughout the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds, as part of its Litter-Free Rivers program. The Litter-Free Rivers program launched with the Jack’s Creek, Washington, installation in May of 2022, and eight more trash traps have since been installed on urban waterways: on Duffyfield Canal in New Bern, Little Rock Creek in Raleigh, Adkin Branch in Kinston, Greens Mill Run, East Tarboro Canal in Tarboro, and three more were recently added on Marsh Creek in Raleigh — a partnership between the City of Raleigh, The Great Raleigh Cleanup and N.C. State University.

Thank you, Tierney and the ECU Honors College for your work to keep Greens Mill Run and the Tar-Pamlico River litter-free! We appreciate you!

If you or your group would be interested in working for water quality by volunteering to clean out a trash trap or Adopt a Trash Trap for a month, check out the following:

More information about the Adopt A Trash Trap program.

Find out when and where the next trash trap cleanouts are scheduled — we’d love to have your help!

Like Sound Rivers’ ever-expanding Litter-Free Rivers program? We definitely do! Donate to support keeping your waterways litter-free!