Every year millions of seabirds, turtles, fish and marine mammals become entangled in marine debris or ingest plastics they have mistaken for food. Approximately 18,000 pieces of plastic are floating on every square kilometer of the world’s oceans. And guess what? The most common type of trash found during this year’s Project Clean Stream was plastic waste, in particular the plastic bag.
On Saturday 14 April 2012, thousands of people took to the streams, shores and woodlands of Chesapeake Bay to volunteer a few hours to remove this debris before it reaches the ocean.
In Talbot County, 100 volunteers worked at eight different locations to clean up our streams. They collected over 2000 pounds of rubbish (approx. 80 garbage bags). Rubbish that couldn’t fit in a bag included shopping carts, car tires, car seats, tents, ladders, basketball hoops, and many more interesting items.
Groups that participated included the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scouts, Town of Easton, Pickering Creek Audubon Centre, Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy, Easton High School Students (Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp), Choptank Tributary Strategy Team, Easton Quakers (Third Haven Meeting House), Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Easton and Eastern Shore Land Conservancy.
Lauren Harton, of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Easton worked with 6 adults and 2 kids from the congregation on the stream behind their building on Rt. 50. They found 2 bucket car seats, a 15 rung wooden ladder and 6 bags of random trash in the creek. They clean the same portion of the creek each year, and are always suprised at how much trash they find.
Thanks to all the amazing volunteers who gave up a few hours of their time to clean our streams and beautify our neighbourhoods. Special thanks must also go to the Town of Easton for collecting and disposing of the trash.
–Natalie Costanzo, Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy
.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.