WASHINGTON — They wore hoodies, carried umbrellas and rocked some serious rain gear Saturday at Anacostia’s River Terrace Park, smiling as they got ready to take out the trash.
“We’ve got a lot of plastic here,” said Matt Robinson from the Department of Energy and the Environment. “It’s mostly water bottles, some debris, a tire, what looks like a piece of hood from a car, all by the wetland at River Terrace Park.”
He knelt on the ground, sorting bottles from the plastic bags the volunteer clean up crew brought back from the river, shaking his head as he found what looked like a plastic grenade.
“Littering is bad,” Robinson said. “Because what people don’t understand: The litter will end up in the river in the District.”
Members of the Girl Scout Troop 6557 came to help, smiling and jumping around as they waited to pick up their plastics bags.
“I’m hoping to find lots of garbage,” said 6-year-old Addison Bubonic.
Members of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity’s D.C. alumni chapter helped with the clean up efforts. “I’ve got a bag full of bottles,” said William Blake, a member of the fraternity.
The Kappas brought along members of the organization’s mentoring group, Guide Right. “The other group is focused on the trash and the cans,” Blake said.
Girl Scout Maryam Hussain, 15, said she’d do anything to help the environment, but she was disturbed about the level of garbage being picked up.
“You would think that everything going on with the environment would tell people to stop dumping stuff,” Hussain said, “but I guess not.”
Payten Eads, 6, came with her mother, Missy, because they really care about the Anacostia River.
Eads said it’s important to clean up, “so people don’t drown into the trash.”
