Despite cold and wet weather conditions, more than 400 volunteers spread out on April 17 across 16 different locations in Canton, Dedham, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Milton, Norwood, and Quincy to help clean up trash and debris along the Neponset River, parks, and trails. The volunteers, who were organized by the Neponset River Watershed Association, collected more than 28 tons of trash in just a three-hour period.
“The enthusiasm and motivation of our volunteers never ceases to amaze me,” said event coordinator Declan Devine. “They were picking up trash and caring for their environment and their community even though it was 40 degrees out and raining; it was awesome!”

Declan offered special thanks to cleanup partners, including the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Clean Up Boston, Dorchester Running Club, East River Neighborhood Association, Edgewater Neighborhood Association, Friends of the Boston Harbor Walk, Keep Hyde Park Beautiful, Milton DPW, Milton High School Earth Club, Norwood DPW, Norwood Trails Committee, Quincy DPW, Quincycles, and Quincy Asian Resources INC. (QARI) Youth ServiceCorps.

The cleanup was sponsored by ENE Systems, Budget Dumpster, Roche Brothers, GZA, Fruit Center Marketplace, Rockland Trust, Fuss & O’Neill, and South Shore Bank

The things they found during the cleaning up

Some of the debris collected included 548 trash bags of litter (bottles, cans, food packaging, plastics, etc.), 300+ nip bottles, 29 tires, 38 hypodermic needles, 4 carpets/area rugs, 1 refrigerator door, 6 car parts, 2 plastic shopping baskets, the base of a light post, 1 tent, 28 large pieces of Styrofoam, 2 docks, 3 buoys, 5 bags of invasive plants, 2 bags of sand, 1 couch frame, 1 small engine block, 1 gas-powered leaf blower engine, 1 mobile basketball backboard/pole/stand, 12 feet of barbed wire, 1 backyard inflatable kiddie pool, 1 car battery, 4 shovels, 4 pairs of sneakers, 1 baseball diamond home plate, 2 shopping carts, 28 feet of steel pipe, 5 trash bags of driftwood, a baseball bat, a plastic lawn chair, a folding chair, a pool cover, a tripod, a blanket, a basketball, a soccer ball, 2 trash barrels, a broom handle, a broom with no handle, 4 car mats, 2 milk crates, a stuffed animal, 2 empty paint cans, a suitcase, 4 plastic gallon bottles, a winter coat, multiple cinder blocks, a metal bed frame, a pair of rubber boots, multiple shoes, a vacuum cleaner, a metal train rail , many ropes, a TV cathode tube.