2025 Cleanup Summary
in 2025 we held 14 rivers and stream cleanups and, with the help of 210 volunteers, we picked up more than 7,500 pounds of trash from our local waterways. Since 2019 we've partnered with the South Carolina Aquarium to track the trash we collect at our cleanups through the Litter Journal app. The data we collect helps us identify litter trends, inform advocacy and policy, and educate the public. This year we collected and recorded 15,817 pieces of trash and debris at our cleanups.
Glass bottles and fragments were the most common item we picked up this year, making up more than 25% of the total number of items we recorded. Though, more than half of that glass came from one cleanup along the West Columbia Riverwalk, a consistent problem area for broken glass.
Plastic bags (11.1%) , plastic bottles (8.9%), plastic food wrappers (8.6%), aluminum cans (8.4%), and styrofoam (8%) made up the rest of the most common items, and were found at every cleanup.
As we have seen every single year we've produced this annual cleanup summary, plastics were the largest category by a significant margin, making up half of all the items we documented.
In addition to the common items, we also pick up several large and/or odd items at the cleanups. This year we recored 13 tires and tire pieces, 2 shopping carts, several plastic buckets, numerous road reflectors, a surprising number of sports balls, and a disappointing number of full dog poop bags. Among the more unusual items recored were a prop skull, a helium tank, $11 in cash (thanks to the volunteers for donating the money), and a full bag of potatoes.
Thank you to all of our fantastic volunteers, we couldn't do this without you! Thanks to the community organizations and local businesses who joined us for cleanups, including
Canoeing for Kids, Riverbanks Zoo staff, SC7 and SCDNR Staff, several USC clubs, USC Law School students, and PWC . Also, thanks to
Palmetto Pride and
SCDNR for providing supplies, and to our local government partners, including Richland County, City of Columbia, City of Cayce, and City of West Columbia for hauling off and disposing of the trash.
