News

A weekend trash trap cleanout not only netted 80 pounds of garbage, but five new Sound Rivers volunteers.

“It was a huge success. It was finally one of the warmer, sunnier days, and everyone was happy to be outside,” said Sound Rivers Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz.

The cleanup happened last Saturday at the trash trap on Duffyfield Canal in New Bern. The switch from a weekday cleanup to the weekend yielded new faces and first-time volunteers.

“We’re going to have to host more Saturday cleanups throughout the year,” Emily said. “These volunteers came from all over. Some of them saw the event on our website or social media. The third volunteer just heard from word of mouth, and the other two are environmental educators at Camp Don Lee, and I invited them to come.”

The volunteers found the usual trash in the passive litter-collection device — lots of plastic bottles and chip bags. Of note was an old tire discarded in the small, urban creek running along the western perimeter of the park.

“We also found a baby snapping turtle — a sign of spring,” Emily laughed.

The trap on Duffyfield Canal was the second installed in a fleet of 10 trash traps, all part of Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program. The Litter-Free Rivers program launched with the Jack’s Creek, Washington, installation in May of 2022, and nine 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, three more were recently added on Marsh Creek in Raleigh (in partnership with the City of Raleigh, The Great Raleigh Cleanup and N.C. State University) and a second Washington trash trap on a small tributary of Jack’s Creek. Trash trap No. 11 was recently approved by Clayton City Council, with installation on Little Creek expected this spring.

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!