River Sweep 2012

On Saturday, September 15th, staff from the Audubon Center at Francis Beidler Forest and eight volunteers participated in the annual Beach Sweep/River Sweep and cleaned 0.6 miles of US Hwy 78 east of Bridge Lake where the road crosses Four Holes Swamp.

Google Earth - River Sweep 2012

That mileage again was 0.6, not 6.0 or 60.0.  We concentrated on the litter at the base of the highway embankment as that is the trash most likely to be picked up by high water and delivered downstream to the Edisto River.  Therefore, the 122 bags of collected trash shown in the image below does not account for all of the trash along the 0.6 miles of highway.  Additionally, there were items too bulky to handle (a log from a passing truck complete with red flag and reflector) or not permissible for disposal at the landfill (multiple tires).

Collected trash - Mike Dawson

The overwhelming majority of litter collected consisted of beverage containers (plastic, foam, aluminum, or glass).  It was obvious, due to the weight of the beverage containers alone or the weight of the partially-filled containers, that the items had been consciously ejected from passing vehicles and had not blown away from an absent-minded driver.

As the guys on ESPN's NFL show are fond of saying, "C'mon man!"