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Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz met up with three new Sound Rivers volunteers for a trash trap cleanout on Wednesday.

James Grady, Jacque Jorns and Rhonda Carter joined Emily for a cleanup of Adkin Branch in Kinston, first removing litter caught in Sound Rivers’ trash trap, then moving on to the recently mowed stormwater ponds nearby.

They netted a total of 49 pounds of trash, which turned up some surprising finds.

“We found another fire extinguisher — I think the third one we’ve found in the Kinston trap — a shoe from a dinosaur Halloween costume, some sort of filter and a baby doll head,” Emily said.

Emily said she’s curious about how Adkin Branch has become a dumping ground for fire extinguishers.

The Adkin Branch trash trap was the fourth trap installed through Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program.

Since the program launched in 2023, a fleet of 13 passive litter-collection devices has been installed on urban waterways throughout the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds: on Jack’s Creek in Washington, Duffyfield Canal in New Bern, Little Rock Creek in Raleigh, Adkin Branch, Greens Mill Run in Greenville, East Tarboro Canal in Tarboro, three were added on Marsh Creek in Raleigh (in partnership with the City of Raleigh, The Great Raleigh Cleanup and N.C. State University), a second Washington trash trap on a small tributary of Jack’s Creek, on Little Creek in the Town of Clayton, on Walnut Creeknear its confluence with Lake Johnson in Raleigh, and on Spring Branch in Smithfield.

As a result, nearly 9 tons of trash have been removed from Litter-Free Rivers’ trash traps by an army of volunteers before it could enter the Neuse or Tar-Pamlico rivers — a step in the right direction to make your rivers litter-free.

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! Email emily@soundrivers.org.

Like Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program? We definitely do! Donate today to help make your rivers litter-free!