Most young folks don’t aspire to a trashy lifestyle, but the do-gooders at Living Lands & Waters are up to their gills in garbage. The group’s young staff members, who live aboard one of three barges patrolling our nation’s major rivers and their watersheds, organize community cleanups and hold educational workshops during river-city stops.
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Cleaning up other people’s messes: 20-something barge boarders Geoffrey Manis and Beth Irving. |
They floated into town in March to join with Partnership for a GreenCity, Operation Brightside, MSD and the University of Louisville for a month-long river cleanup. Over 250 volunteers pitched in — one of the best attendances so far during Living Lands & Waters garbage-grabbing journeys along the Ohio, Mississippi and other waterways — picking up trash along the banks of the Ohio and Salt rivers and Beargrass and Harrods creeks.
Approximately 18 tons of refuse was collected and loaded onto the organization’s barges. Along with 500 tires, 50 metal drums and 25 refrigerators, the rubbish-snatchers reclaimed a Lazy Boy recliner, one bowling ball (evidently some of them float) and even a kitchen sink from the muddy banks.
The East Moline, Illinois-based barge brigade promises to return next year. Until then, for more information visit www.livinglandsandwaters.org.
— Melissa Duley
