During Clean Your Streams Day, volunteers find many other unique items that tell a different story about marine debris. Unique and strange items found in 2015 included spray paint cans, a power drill, coconuts, a table, a wheel barrel, a wooden train whistle, a toaster oven, a bible, 97 baseballs, a wig, and 10 shopping carts. It is important to find appropriate ways of disposing items such as these. Many municipalities and cities hold special trash days where citizens can dispose of large amounts of trash before they reach our waterways. Look into proper ways of recycling electronics, yard waste, and household hazardous wastes through your local government. Lucas County provides a number of opportunities for trash disposal, with more information on their website. In the near future, look for a new edition to our Clean Your Streams page on our website, focusing on marine debris prevention and reducing our impact on waterways. 

We chose to seek funding for our stream cleanup projects, including Clean Your Streams Day and Clean Your Streams 365. You can read our full grant proposal on the PIG Difference website. This year marks the 20th Annual Clean Your Streams Day and we are halfway to our goal of fundraising $20,000 needed to support this program each year. Your vote can help us get that much closer! The voting period remains open until August 20. You can vote once per 24 hours, per device (no log-in or email address required). Please share with friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else you know that depends on our water resource here in northwest Ohio, which should be everyone you know. You can help us spread the word by sharing our Twitter and Facebook posts about voting with your social media networks! We at Partners for Clean Streams thank you in advance for your votes and hope to see you at this year’s Clean Your Streams Day. Vote at www.PIGDifference.org/votenow. 

We also encourage our Corporate and Organizational groups to become Certified River Partners for Clean Your Streams. Groups interested need to “certify” the total number of volunteers in the registered group at check-in on the day on the event and will be awarded a level of certification after Clean Your Streams Day. The River Partner Certification levels include Creek Crusader (1-9 volunteers), Stream Protector (10-29 volunteers), River Guardian (30-49 volunteers), and Watershed Warrior (50 or more volunteers). Lastly, at the Appreciation Picnic, we will recognize 20 Clean Your Streams Champions who have demonstrated unmatched dedication and commitment to this event over the past 20 years. Our CYS Champions include volunteer groups, organizations, businesses, and individuals who inspire us to continue working toward clean, clear, and safe water. The Champions were nominated by Partners for Clean Streams staff and the Clean Your Streams planning committee.  For more information about the CYS challenges and how you can sign up, check out our website or the challenge flyer.

Ever since the inaugural Clean Your Streams Day in 1997, the program has grown in number of participants, community partners, and environmental impact. In 20 years, 10,065 volunteers have participated in Clean Your Streams and they collectively have cleaned 239,977 pounds of trash from northwest Ohio waterways – equaling 120 tons, which is equivalent to 18 male African elephants or 10,000 adult walleye! Clean Your Streams is a great opportunity to come together as a community to collect trash and debris from our streams, rivers, and lakes, which we all depend upon for recreation, livelihood, and drinking water. Look for updates regarding registration soon, on social media and our website. Register by September 11th to let us know you will be joining us for this special day in our history!