The LRWP and SEWA volunteers went out to the litter trap in the Green Brook on Saturday, July 19th, 2025, to conduct a litter tally. Huge thanks to our SEWA International Central Jersey youth partners! Thanks to their efforts, we’ll have much better data on how the litter trap keeps our watershed clean. Learn more about the litter trap initiative here. And learn more about the LRWP’s litter tally project with SEWA here. Below, you’ll find Sewa’s Pravith Venkat describing the litter we picked up and conditions surrounding the litter trap. Tragically, a terrible storm tore through our area of study on July 14th. Almost 6.5 inches of rain fell in one hour. Scores of homes flooded up and down the brook, and at least two homes saw their foundations ripped out by the current. At least two people drowned when their car was washed off a bridge.

Blog post by Pravith Venkat.

This week’s cleanup at the Greenbook stream was heavily influenced by a recent flash flood, which caused a surge in water flow and significant changes to the litter trap’s effectiveness. While we recovered a large volume of debris, much of it had either escaped the trap or washed up on the banks. This highlights the powerful impact natural disasters can have on our cleanup efforts.

Trash Found Outside the Trap: 

• 1 mattress 
• 29 aluminum cans 
• 1 food can 
• 1 glove
• 1 glass bottle 
• 3 plastic lids
• 1 battery
• 1 safety razor
• 1 paint sample container
• 1 plastic container
• 1 boot
• 1 white bucket 
• 26 plastic bottles
• About 50 plastic wrappers
• Few pieces of styrofoam
• 1 water reservoir
• 1 green trash can 
• 2 straws 

During the storm event, the Litter Bandit broke loose from the southern bank. It then swung into the current and broached the northern bank. Interestingly, when this happened, its large buoys trapped a substantial amount of trash that we were able to recover:

• 38 plastic bottles
• 1 plastic lid
• 1 cigarette case
• 3 plastic shot bottles
• 1 glass liquor bottle
• 4 aluminum cans
• 1 plastic bag 
• Lots of styrofoam 
• 2 small soccer balls
• 1 flip flop
• 1 wooden piece
• 3 plastic wrappers
• 1 plastic gum container
• 1 paper cup 
• 1 fishing lure
• 1 plastic cap
• 1 trashbag 

After the storm, the Dunellen Department of Public Works reattached the Litter Bandit to the southern embankment.

Other observations: 

1. The southern bank exhibited only minimal plant life in the area where the Litter Bandit had been attached, whereas the northern bank had a tremendous amount of riparian vegetation. The vegetation on the northern bank may have saved the litter trap from detaching from both banks.
2. The roots of two dead as tree roots still support the bank behind the trap, but they are deteriorating. Without these roots, the erosion from the storm could have been much more severe.
3. We saw many examples of ash trees destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer beetle. While the Emerald Ash Borer beetle is usually thought of us a pest that destroy urban and suburban ash trees, its worst effects may be the damage done to its native habitat of stream and river banks.
4. Due to a strong odor, we believe a dead animal is trapped among the woody debris washed against the northern bank.

This week highlighted one of the biggest challenges with installing litter traps in streams: How can we prepare a litter trap to handle extreme weather events? Once the water level rose too high, the current became too strong, causing debris to escape the trap. Then, the water pressure on the stream bank and the buoys caused the attachment to fail on the southern bank.

We are also noticing more signs of ecosystem damage, such as the presence of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which destroys the ash trees that hold together stream banks.

Going forward, we will continue to evaluate the trap’s structure and location. This could mean relocating it, or tying the rope to a stronger tree to improve stability. Our goal is to stop litter from reaching the river. To do that, we need a trap that can handle both normal water flow and extreme weather.