Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, PA

Date: Oct 2nd, 2012

Location: Bartram's Gardens

Haul: 230 lbs

We almost went an entire cleanup season without getting soaked at cleanups. Almost. An hour into our last Bartram’s Garden cleanup (and October rain date), the skies opened up on our volunteers.

Even though we only got an hour in, our volunteers managed to pick up 230 pounds of trash including 811 plastic bottles, 16 glass bottles, and 37 aluminum cans.

During our 2012 cleanup season, 389 Philadelphia volunteers joined us in removing 4,513 pounds of trash from the Schuylkill River. We picked up an insane amount of recyclables: 3,771 plastic bottles, 163 glass bottles, and 281 aluminum cans.

If you stacked all of the plastic bottles we pulled from the Schuylkill River this summer end to end, they would be 2.5 times the height of the Comcast Center, the tallest building in Philadelphia. In case you have a fear of heights, that’s enough plastic bottles to wrap around City Hall 2.5 times.

We had a great 2012 season, see you in 2013!

2012 Weird Trash

October: Toy Donut, Broom Bristles, Kid’s ID from 1985, a bird-shaped whistle

September: 2 different dinosaur toys, Utility Marker, A candlestick covered in bunnies

August: A plastic chicken and waffles and a real can of whipped cream, A farmer Ernie stuffed doll (sans Bert), Baby doll leg, A bucket of kitchen knives, Pedicure Toe Separator

July: A half of a chair, An arrow, A volleyball, Half of an Easter egg, The heel of a shoe and a little kid’s sneaker

June: A lottery ticket, Bingo ball, A milk of magnesium bottle, Loads of metal rails, Caution tape, A pillow, A mother and daughter photo

May: A fortune cookie, A Christmas wreath, A pair of pants, An old spoon and ceramic bowl

April: A car engine, car hood, part of a car door, tires, a plastic duck, a bottle capper, the back of a TV

March: Plastic blue crab, a parking violation, monopoly money, a measuring tape dispenser, a tractor tire, an empty gun case

We Would Like to Thank

Bartram’s Garden Staff

buildOn

Alpha Chi Rho brothers from Drexel University

Penn Environmental Group, Alpha Phi Omega, & Seas Green from University of Pennsylvania

Drexel University Civic Engagement students

Drexel University Epsilon Zeta sorority sisters Drexel Alphi Chi Rho fraternity brothers

Levi’s’ employees

PIDC

Drexel’s Wrestling Team

LEVI'S employees

Haverford House Fellows

The Center for Peace and Global Citizenship employees at Haverford College

Drexel University students

Dialogue Institute participants

Ikea South Philly employees

B Lab members

B Corporations

Recyclebank

Barber Gale Group

One Village Coffee

Cfg Kit Program members

Philadelphia University’s Serve 101 Class

Temple University's Business Honors Student Association

Alpha Phi Omega- UPenn

Jefferson University Leadership Live students

Cleanups Road Crew Member Form