Riverkeeper's 2016 Hudson Sweep is Biggest Yet: VIDEO

The 5th annual Riverkeeper Sweep – a one-day event encompassing more than 100 cleanups and plantings along the Hudson River and New York City shorelines--was the biggest ever.

Sweep 2016 by the numbers:

• Number of projects: 108

• Number of volunteers: 2,200

• Trash removed: 39 tons

• Recyclables removed and recycled: 9 tons

• Trees and shrubs planted or maintained: 836

• Most common debris: plastic bottles, Styrofoam

Riverkeeper’s annual event is part of its growing “Trash Free Hudson” initiative to reduce plastic and other floatable pollution in the estuary. In a new effort this year, students in seven locations partnered with cleanup volunteers to collect data on the exact types and amounts of debris recovered from shoreline locations. The far more detailed survey than the basic tallies of the amount of trash removed from each site annually aims to investigate upstream sources of trash and determine how to prevent such pollution from entering the waterways.

Riverkeeper Sweep 2016: Our biggest yet!

A wide range of local leaders organize the projects. Examples are non-profit groups (the Gowanus Canal Conservancy), boat clubs (Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse), fellow environmental groups (Guardians of Flushing Bay, Wallkill River Watershed Alliance), kayaking meet-up groups (Capital District Kayakers), small businesses (Hudson River Expeditions in Cold Spring, I Paddle NY in Saugerties), municipalities (Newburgh Conservation Advisory Council), AND agencies (NYC Department of Environmental Protection).

Assisting as data collectors this year were students from the Aqua Culture Club Achievement First Crown Heights Middle School at Grand Ferry Park, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; the Masters School, working in Hastings; Nyack High School at a Rockland County location to be determined; Vassar College on the Casperkill; The Mount Academy on its shoreline in Esopus; Storm King School and Cornwall High School at Plum Point, Cornwall; and a boat building club in Hudson.

"By teaming up with Riverkeeper, people see that they can make a difference. They see other people winning fights that they were told they were going to lose."– Paul Gallay, President and Hudson Riverkeeper

The student groups were educated by Josh Kogan, coordinator of the Trash Free Waters Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2.

“Riverkeeper Sweep volunteers are performing a tremendous service to improve the health of the Hudson River Estuary. The new citizen science effort will add a new dimension to that,” Kogan said. “Data helps us characterize the pollution in our waterways, and establish better policy as a result. It starts with citizen science. It starts with community work.”

PHOTO/contributed