Boy Scout Troop #330 and Cub Scout Pack #30, along with numerous community organizations including the Rahway River Watershed Association, Rahway and Clark Environmental Commissions, and local school clubs, will hold its annual Earth Day Rahway River clean-up on Saturday, April 22nd (rain date of April 23rd). This cleanup event has been conducted annually since the 1990’s under the auspices of the Union County Adopt-a-Park program.
All volunteers are welcome to participate. No registration is required. Interested volunteers should meet at the parking area adjacent to the waterfall of the Rahway River by the dam at Winfield Park at 8:45 a.m. The clean-up will generally be between 9-1, but any amount of time or effort that folks can volunteer is appreciated. Anyone can participate! Scout, school, church, and civic groups are just some of the organizations that have participated in the past.
There is a large volume of debris and garbage to remove from the river banks and areas of the river’s floodplain. This includes debris like shopping carts, tires, and of course floatables (cans, bottles, plastics, etc.).
Union County supplies gloves and garbage bags, and material donations from generous individuals and companies (donuts, bagels, coffee, bottled water, paper towels, hand-wipes, etc) support the volunteers. Last year, nearly 150 volunteers participated and removed tires, and a number of other large pieces of debris, and over 100 large bags of floatable debris and other wastes.
This is a great way to celebrate Earth Day! If you haven’t participated in an event like this before, you would find it invigorating, and you will feel good about what you are giving back to your community and the environment.
Everyone will be able to work with a team. Teams will be spread out to a number of locations within the park.
All participants should wear jeans, long-sleeved shirts, gloves and boots. Participants can bring a standard 5-gallon carry bucket with a handle (put your name on the bottom)…this makes for easy carrying of “stuff” for transfer to the large garbage bags. When we complete the event we do a basic inventory of the “big stuff” that we removed….and within approximately 24 hours Union County Parks removes and disposes of all the trash. If you need more information on this Earth Day event please feel free to drop an e-mail to rivercleanup@comcast.net.
(above) Last year, nearly 150 volunteers participated and removed tires, and a number of other large pieces of debris, and over 100 large bags of floatable debris and other wastes.
