River clean-up a success
photo credit to Phil Riggan
From Phil Riggan of Richmond.com we get an idea of exactly how much of a difference volunteers can make. Thanks to all that spent their Saturday making our river a better place.
Beginning at 9 a.m., at least 950 registered volunteers scouted the riverbanks for trash, recyclable materials and other debris such as tires. Preliminary results from JRAC Saturday afternoon showed that 348 trash bags full of litter were collected, as well as 191 bags full of recyclable materials, including plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans, paper and cardboard. Participants collected 82 tires.
Each year, the cleanup benefits from a lot of support from boaters, and this year’s event was no different. According to JRAC, at least 55 boats, including canoes, kayaks and powerboats, volunteered to clean up the James, enabling volunteers to reach out-of-the-way areas that participants on foot could not get to.
Thank you to all volunteers! Reedy Creek numbers from the James River Association:
160 volunteers,3 hours of working, 48 bags of trash, 62 bags of recycleables; 5 tires; 2 basketballs; 3 large sections of chain link fence; one fairly new size 13 Nike cross-trainer (left). Or if you’d prefer those stats in supercans, that’s: 11 supercans of trash; 7 supercans of glass and plastic; 3 supercans of cardboard; 10 large trash bags of aluminim cans (that will be recycled.)
BIG thank you to everybody that did this to keep our rivers clean and safe!
Just watch out for leeches in the Forest Hill lake! Picking up litter (including used diapers in the lake, sickening…..), I also picked up two leeches on my ankle! Overall litter pickup is very satisfying, but next time, I’m wearing boots! ;-)