Rivers Alive volunteers collect less trash … and that’s good
Special Photo: Judy Bowles
Special Photo: Judy Bowles
Special Photo: Judy Bowles
By Carlton Fletcher
[email protected]
ALBANY — The amount of trash collected by some 50 volunteers at Saturday’s annual Rivers Alive cleanup was smaller than usual, even after Hurricane Michael helped swell the Flint River last year and kept volunteers from taking boats out to look for debris on the river.
That, Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful Executive Director Judy Bowles said Sunday, is good news.
“Even with two years’ worth of debris on the river, we were able to pick up less trash yesterday than we usually do,” Bowles said Sunday. “We won’t have a total (weight) of the trash until later in the week, but it was considerably less than it has been in the past. We didn’t even fill up a single Dumpster, and that’s unusual.
“What we have to hope and believe that means is that people are starting to get the message about litter and how it negatively impacts our community.”
The smaller collection of debris is even more meaningful given the fact that the water level of the Flint was at one of its lowest points in the last several years due to an extended drought and the fact that Georgia Power had initiated a draw-down of water along local waterways so that the company could work on dams and homeowners could work on other structures that extend into those waterways.
Volunteers removed several tires — which Bowles said Saturday are common among debris thrown into the waterway — garbage bags full of plastic water and drink bottles, and other debris during the annual Rivers Alive event, a national effort to clean up around the country’s waterways.
“I guess what was most disturbing during this clean-up was the amount of trash that our volunteers collected along the (Flint) River Walk,” Bowles said. “It baffles me how, after we built that feature so people could enjoy a walk in nature and take in the beauty of the river, people would still spoil it with their trash. Even with trash receptacles all along the walk, people will throw trash on the ground rather than holding it until they get to the next receptacle.
“Until we educate our entire community to pick up after itself and put litter in its proper place, we’ll continue to need events like Rivers Alive.”
Bowles said Saturday that in 15 years of holding the event along the Flint, KADB volunteers have collected more than 52 tons of debris.
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