In a parking lot on a crisp fall day, GCAC volunteers hand-sorted the contents of a dumpster and dozens of trash bags of paper, food wrapping, textiles, furniture scraps, and other discarded items—more than 11,000 separate pieces of trash—much of it rusty, sharp, or toxic. AC staff then weighed and analyzed the trash. This audit was the first of its kind in the Pittsburgh area. Garden Club of Allegheny County members will continue to be active with Trash Audit and other conservation programs in its community. As the GCAC project leader says: “As challenging as the trash audit was, now being able to talk specifics about the trash was worth the effort!”
https://www.gcamerica.org/ Not surprisingly, single-use plastics (bottles, straws, cups, and other fast-food debris), represented two-thirds of the items collected. Looking specifically at the riverfronts, single-use plastics represented ninety percent of the total. Perhaps even more disturbing than the trash is the widespread infiltration of the plastic particles into soil and water. Allegheny CleanWays is adding the Pittsburgh findings into international databases to support global plastic minimization. Locally, AC is involved in educational and public relations programs and supports the implementation of projects such as storm drain “gratekeepers” and in-river trash collection devices.