News

Sound Rivers’ Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz and Business Manager Lauren Rowe were on the move this week and on a mission to maintain the trash traps in Smithfield and Clayton.

Their first stop on Wednesday was in Smithfield to handle a much-needed clean out of the trash trap on Spring Branch, a tributary of the Neuse running through the heart of town.

“We removed around 33 pounds of trash,” Emily said. “We found a surprising number of pieces of Christmas decorations, which is just odd timing.”

Their second stop was Clayton, where they met up with Larry Hattenburg, a super-volunteer who’s taken on the Little Creek trash trap.

Last week, Larry reported that utility maintenance crews had apparently cut down one of the trees the trash trap was anchored to. With both anchor lines tied to the same tree, trash was being prevented from funneling into the trap.

Emily, Lauren and Larry set about fixing the problem.

“We dug a hole so we could add a pole and concrete it in place, then attach the trash trap cables to it,” Emily said.

With the fix, the Clayton trash trap is now back to collecting litter.

The Smithfield and Clayton trash traps are part of Sound Rivers’ Litter-Free Rivers program that was launched in 2022.

Since, Sound Rivers has installed a fleet of 13 passive litter-collection devices on urban waterways throughout the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico watersheds. The Litter-Free Rivers program started with a Jack’s Creek, Washington, installation in May of 2022. Since, 12 more trash traps have been added: on Duffyfield Canal in New Bern, Little Rock Creek in Raleigh, Adkin Branch in Kinston, Greens Mill Run in Greenville, East Tarboro Canal in Tarboro, three more 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 Clayton, on Walnut Creek near its confluence of Lake Johnson, in Raleigh, and on Spring Branch in Smithfield.

Over three years, 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’ ever-expanding Litter-Free Rivers program? We definitely do! Donate today to help Litter-Free Rivers grow!