Schuylkill River (23-Sept-2015)

I was going to have another easy day today, but it is the first day of fall. So to celebrate I went out and  took six more bags of plastics off of the banks of the Schuylkill River. Had a couple good finds today and multiple unwanted finds. The most interesting thing I found today was a message in a bottle. This was the first one I have found on any river. This is what it said:

"HI our names are C. W. and M. C. todays date is September 21 2012. We are writing just for fun. We live in Pennsylvania and our number is _________. Call us if you get this note. Madison is 9 and I am 11. We are cousins. Please Call Us if you get this note.  By the way we are girls. If you want to add me on Facebook just type C. W. There is a pic of me in big sunglasses. Bye. To: Anyone From: M. C, C. W."

Of course I omitted the names and the phone number. They are the reason I am not putting up an actual photo of the letter. It was also very hard to read, the writing was severely faded.

This time I went down river from the dock. More of the same, once again, for this location. Lots of bottles and lots of other trash. I am starting to come to the realization I will not get to the non-recyclables at this site this year. It will require more planning and getting organizations like the PFBC to work with me on trash removal.

Immediately I started finding needles. These two photos and one of the below were all in the shot above. Again, I made sure every step was a safe one.

I found a total of six today. There were also loose caps, so I know there are more and they are so nicely uncapped. I don't know weather it was just because I was really watching my steps or if it was the article I read the other night on micro plastics. Today I noticed just how much is already out there.  Once micro plastics are in our environment it is impossible to remove them. If you haven't heard of this issue yet, look it up. It is amazing what we are using micro plastics for.

More and more and more. Sometimes it just feels like it never ends. All the while I was working on taking this mess out of there a motor boat was flying back and forth up and down the river. There were several times where I just stopped, watched it and thought to myself, yeah, I would rather be doing that. I don't even like motor boats.

And more. 

And more.

This section of bank I have to return to. I did not remove all of the bottles, but I did fill six bags. I should be able to clear this bank of recyclables this year, but I probably won't be back this week.

Hard paddle back. Little easier than the last trip up river. This time the wind was in my favor and it was not as far. The floating bags did take on a lot of water though. 

Cookie Monster!!! Yes, by the end of the trip I was talking to it and I was talking back to myself in my best Cookie Monster voice. Why not? 

If you like what I am doing and want to see much more trash taken out of our natural lands and rivers next year, you can contribute at: gofundme.com/takingoutthetrash